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Molecular Pain
Published in: Molecular Pain 1/2013

Open Access 01-12-2013 | Research

Gender, variation in opioid receptor genes and sensitivity to experimental pain

Authors: Hiroe Sato, Joanne Droney, Joy Ross, Anne Estrup Olesen, Camilla Staahl, Trine Andresen, Ruth Branford, Julia Riley, Lars Arendt-Nielsen, Asbjørn Mohr Drewes

Published in: Molecular Pain | Issue 1/2013

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Abstract

Background

Pain tolerance is subject to considerable inter-individual variation, which may be influenced by a number of genetic and non-genetic factors. The mu, delta and kappa opioid receptors play a role in pain perception and are thought to mediate different pain modalities. The aim of this study was to explore associations between pain thresholds and gender and genetic variants in the three opioid receptor genes (OPRM, OPRD and OPRK). Experimental multi-modal pain data from previously published studies carried out in healthy Caucasian volunteers were used in order to limit the number of confounders to the study outcome. Data on thermal skin pain (n=36), muscle pressure pain (n=31) and mechanical visceral pain (n=50)) tolerance thresholds were included.

Results

Nineteen genetic polymorphisms were included in linear regression modeling. Males were found to tolerate higher thermal and muscle pressure pain than females (p=0.003 and 0.02). Thirty four percent of variability in thermal skin pain was accounted for by a model consisting of OPRK rs6473799 and gender. This finding was just outside significance when correction for multiple testing was applied. Variability in muscle pressure pain tolerance was associated with OPRK rs7016778 and rs7824175. These SNPs accounted for 43% of variability in muscle pressure pain sensitivity and these findings remained significant after adjustment for multiple testing. No association was found with mechanical visceral pain.

Conclusion

This is a preliminary and hypothesis generating study due to the relatively small study size. However, significant association between the opioid receptor genes and experimental pain sensitivity supports the influence of genetic variability in pain perception. These findings may be used to generate hypotheses for testing in larger clinical trials of patients with painful conditions.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Gender, variation in opioid receptor genes and sensitivity to experimental pain
Authors
Hiroe Sato
Joanne Droney
Joy Ross
Anne Estrup Olesen
Camilla Staahl
Trine Andresen
Ruth Branford
Julia Riley
Lars Arendt-Nielsen
Asbjørn Mohr Drewes
Publication date
01-12-2013
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Molecular Pain / Issue 1/2013
Electronic ISSN: 1744-8069
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-8069-9-20

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