Neurogenic influences on contralateral responses during experimental rat monoarthritis

Abstract Many inflammatory conditions show topographically precise symmetrical responses. In this study we assessed vascular and cellular responses of apparently normal knees following induction of monoarthritis on the opposite side. A strictly localised monoarthritis was induced in the right knee of experimental animals using intra-articular latex spheres. In both knee joints bradykinin-induced plasma extravasation was significantly enhanced increasing from 0.52 ± 0.07 μg/ml Evans blue to 0.99 ± 0.07 μg/ml and 0.88 ± 0.1 μg/ml in the injected and uninjected, contralateral, knees respectively ( P 2 to a maximum of 812 ± 125 cells/mm 2 on day 10 ( P