Can Myofascial Trigger Points Involve Nociplastic Pain? A Scoping Review on Animal Models

• Published in: Journal of pain research Vol. 16; pp. 3747 - 3758
• Main Authors: Matuska, Wiktoria, Matuska, Jakub, Skorupska, Elzbieta, Siwek, Maria, Herrero, Pablo, Santafe, Manel M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dove Medical Press Limited 30.11.2023; Dove Medical Press
• Subjects: Animal experimentation; autonomic nervous system; Bupivacaine; chronic pain; hyperalgesia; Methylene blue; myofascial pain; referred pain
• ISSN: 1178-7090; 1178-7090
• DOI: 10.2147/JPR.S422885

Nociplastic pain is a non-specific, regional pain lasting more than three months, characterised by the onset of hypersensitivity, despite no clear evidence of tissue damage. It is a relatively new classified type of pain. As a result, there has not yet been much work describing its precise modelling. The mechanism of its formation needs to be clearly explained. Authors point out that the occurrence of myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) can lead to this type of pain as one possibility. This paper summarises the available literature on modelling nociplastic pain and MTrPs. It complies with studies describing animal model creation and presents the results of performed experiments. The literature search was conducted in December 2022 and included the following databases: PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. In this scoping review, six studies were included. Two described the creation of animal models of nociplastic pain, one adapted old models to nociplastic pain, and three described the modelling of MTrPs. This is the first paper pointing in the possible direction of detecting and studying the correlation between MTrPs and nociplastic pain in animal models. However, there is currently insufficient evidence to describe MTrPs as nociplastic, as few studies with animal models exist. Keywords: chronic pain, myofascial pain, autonomic nervous system, referred pain, hyperalgesia