Chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) conditions, like fibromyalgia, are associated with widespread pain and alterations in autonomic function. Regular physical activity prevents development of CMP and can reduce autonomic dysfunction. We tested if there were alterations in autonomic function in sedentary mice with CMP, and if exercise reduced the autonomic dysfunction and pain induced by CMP. CMP was induced by two intramuscular injections of pH 5 in combination with a single fatiguing exercise task. A running wheel was placed into cages so that the mouse had free access for either 5 days or 8 weeks (exercise groups) and these animals were compared to sedentary mice without running wheels. Autonomic function and nociceptive withdrawal thresholds of the paw and muscle were assessed before and after induction of CMP in exercised and sedentary mice. In sedentary mice, we show decreased baroreflex sensitivity, increased blood pressure variability, decreased heart rate variability and decreased withdrawal thresholds of the paw and muscle 24h after induction of CMP. There were no sex differences after induction of the CMP in any outcome measure. We further show that both 5 days and 8 weeks of physical activity prevent the development of autonomic dysfunction and decreases in withdrawal threshold induced by CMP. Thus, this study uniquely shows development of autonomic dysfunction in animals with chronic muscle hyperalgesia that can be prevented with as little as 5 days of physical activity, and suggest that physical activity may prevent the development of pain and autonomic dysfunction in people with CMP.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 07 February 2016.
All research outputs
#10,703,292
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Outputs from Pain (03043959)
#4,357
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Outputs of similar age
#131,724
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Outputs of similar age from Pain (03043959)
#61
of 102 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,400,738 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 68th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,968 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 16.5. This one is in the 45th percentile – i.e., 45% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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