Figure 3.

Effects of the selective COX-2 inhibitors, celecoxib or rofecoxib on rat paw hyperalgesia and oedema. Here the results are shown as the mean area under the curve for the time course over 4 h for each group of animals (see methods). In (a) the hyperalgesia induced by carrageenan (bar marked C) was totally prevented by all levels of celecoxib. Hypoalgesia, measured as an increase of nociceptive threshold above the normal was shown for all except the highest dose of celecoxib. In (b), oedema was unchanged, except after the highest dose of celecoxib when it was reduced by about 30%. In (c) pre-treatment with rofecoxib reversed the hyperalgesia and induced hypoalgesia. The loss of hypoalgesia with increasing doses of rofecoxib is clearly shown here with the highest dose preventing hyperalgesia but showing no hypoalgesia. Note that none of the doses of this selective COX-2 inhibitor reduced paw oedema (d). *Significantly different from carrageenan only; #significantly different from zero; P<0.05.