Figure 4.

The effect of a combination pharmacotherapy of tapentadol and pregabalin on WDR neuronal responses in MIA and sham animals. (a) In MIA animals, both dose combinations produced a significant reduction in neuronal firing induced by DNIC in response to 26 and 60 g mechanical stimulations and significantly inhibited pre‐conditioned neuronal firing for all mechanical stimulations (n = 6 for both doses). (b) In sham controls, both dose combinations had little effect on the magnitude of neuronal inhibition induced by DNIC. The 1 mg tapentadol and 10 mg pregabalin dose combination had no significant effect on pre‐conditioned mechanically evoked neuronal firing (n = 6). The 2 mg tapentadol and 5 mg pregabalin dose significantly inhibited pre‐conditioned neuronal firing in response to a 60 g stimulation, which can likely be attributed to the higher tapentadol dose (n = 5). Two‐way ANOVA with Bonferroni correction tested statistically significant differences from pre‐conditioned baseline responses for both DNIC‐induced and drug‐induced neuronal inhibition; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001