Gender/Sex Differences

Dr Michael Jankowski from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center will present recent work on the complex interplay between muscle afferents and target derived signaling molecules in the development of ischemic myalgia.  This presentation will explore how primary muscle afferents dually modulate nociception and the cardiovascular response to exercise in response to upregulated growth factor signaling from the muscles.  Dr. Jankowski will also describe inherent differences in muscle nociceptors that may explain the distinct mechanisms that underlie the development of ischemic myalgia between males and females.  Results will be presented in the context of possible new therapies for treating patients with these debilitating disorders.

Dr Kathleen Sluka from the University of Iowa will present recent work on the role of sex hormones in exercise-induced pain and exercise-induced analgesia. This presentation will show the differences in development of chronic widespread pain in animal models, how testosterone and activation of androgen receptors protects against development of chronic pain, and the underlying sex-specific mechanisms in the central nervous system, particularly the RVM. We will further show that resistance training exercise, but not aerobic exercise, increase testosterone to produce analgesia through activation of androgen receptors. We will present these results, the underlying mechanisms by how testosterone induces analgesia in males and with resistance training and provide the clinical implications for these findings.

Dr Masahiko Ikeuchi will present his latest research on joint pain with special focus on structural and functional changes in joint innervation in the development of osteoarthritis and discuss how these findings promote a better understanding of the mechanisms of joint pain. Dr. Ikeuchi will also describe the effects of menopause on joint structure that may at least partially explain why women are more affected and burdened by osteoarthritis than men.
In this workshop, participants will learn about pathological changes in osteoarthritis associated with joint pain and how these changes accelerate after menopause.

One of the most common complaints of patients seeking medical treatment for pain is musculoskeletal in nature, yet this type of pain state is vastly understudied compared to numerous other pain conditions. Translation of preclinical studies of muscle pain to human conditions is therefore of outmost importance. However, one of the major issues in translational research has been the use of very short term pain models that potentially do not mimic the clinical condition of persistent pain. This session will bring together expert preclinical (Jankowski), translational (Sluka) and clinical (Ikeuchi) researchers with the goal of demonstrating how basic science can be used to inform clinical practice and vice versa. Cutting edge research on peripheral and central mechanisms of muscle pain, sex differences and human pain conditions will be covered. This workshop will also present unique preclinical and human models offering better translation of the prolonged pain states. Attending professionals will be able to maintain an up-to-date knowledge of innovative advances in the musculoskeletal pain field in addition to obtaining novel information about how preclinical research findings may translate into better clinical outcomes or original therapies for numerous forms of musculoskeletal pain.