Meal pattern changes associated with temporomandibular joint inflammation/pain in rats; analgesic effects

Abstract Establishing a valid animal model to study temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain has proven extremely difficult. Using complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) to induce TMJ inflammation, we recently showed that meal pattern analysis could be used as a noninvasive biological marker to study TMJ pain in an animal model. The purpose of this study was to further validate our animal model by determining whether aspects of CFA-induced TMJ inflammation/pain are reversed with ibuprofen (IBU) treatment. In the first trial, 48 male rats were used and in the second trial, 32 female ovariectomized rats, given 17β-estradiol replacement, were used. The rats were assigned to one of four groups: control (CON−CON); control+IBU (CON+IBU); CFA−CON; and CFA+IBU. In the male trial, CFA injection ( P P P P