You are here:
Oral Administration Of Citronellal For Eight Weeks Does Not Produce Large Changes In Peripheral Nerve Function Or Somatosensory Evoked Potentials.
Citation:
Jung, G., A. Smith, Kathy Mcdaniel, AND D. Herr. Oral Administration Of Citronellal For Eight Weeks Does Not Produce Large Changes In Peripheral Nerve Function Or Somatosensory Evoked Potentials. SOT Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, March 11 - 14, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
Presentation of findings described in the included abstract at the SOT national meeting.
Description:
Citronellal is a monoterpene oil that has been reported to have anti-nociceptive properties in mice, and has been shown to reduce the amplitude of compound action potentials in the sciatic nerve of an ex-vivo frog preparation. These findings suggest that citronellal has the potential to alter peripheral nerve function. The physio-chemical properties of citronellal indicate it has the potential to react with cellular proteins through imine formation. We treated adult male Long-Evans rats with an oral gavage of 0 (corn oil vehicle), 79, 104, or 116 mg/kg/day citronellal daily for 8 weeks. Behavioral observations (gait, open field activity, arousal, foot splay, grip strength, rearing) were made each week during treatment. Nerve excitability testing was performed using recordings from the tail nerves (motor and mixed) and sciatic (motor) nerve during the 6th week. Compound nerve action potentials (CNAP) and nerve conduction velocity (NCV; tail nerves), and somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) were recorded over the cortex and cerebellum during the 8th week of treatment. Treatment with citronellal did not alter the animal’s weight gain over the 8 weeks. No changes were observed for gait, open field activity, arousal, hindlimb foot splay, or rearing. There was evidence of decreased grip strength, but the results were not dose- or time-related. Nerve excitability testing of tail motor nerves did not indicate changes in nerve function. However, nerve excitability testing of the sciatic nerve suggested increased thresholds following a hyperpolarizing pulse, possibly due to greater membrane hyperpolarization associated with decreased K+ conductance. No changes in tail mixed nerve excitability were indicated. No changes in tail CNAPs, NCV, or SEPs from the cortex or cerebellum were indicated. Our data suggest that treatment with citronellal (over this dose range and duration) did not result in large changes in peripheral nerve, motor, or somatosensory function. These results do not preclude anti-nociceptive properties after acute treatments. This is an abstract of a proposed presentation and does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.