A sensitive gait parameter for quantification of arthritis in rats.

Quantification of arthritis is helpful for investigating pain mechanisms of arthritis and for developing new drugs. We assessed and identified a feasible parameter for quantification of rat arthritis using a novel gait analyzing system. Knee-joint injection with small doses of lambda-carrageenan decreased swing time ratio (STR, swing time of the non-treated hindlimb/swing time of the lambda-carrageenan-injected hindlimb) in a dose-dependent manner. Intraperitoneal treatment with indomethacin restored the decreased STR dose-dependently. The arthritis could not be accurately quantified by swing time and swelling, common indices of arthritis. These results show that STR is a sensitive, reliable parameter for quantification of arthritis.