Rats! Soy Reduces Neuropathic Pain?

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Rats! Soy Reduces Neuropathic Pain?

The findings of this report arose from a development in a years-long study of pain perception in lab animals. An Israeli neuroscientist from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, continuing his research at Johns Hopkins, found surprising results during his work in the United States.

Yoram Shir and his colleagues were studying neuropathic (sympathetically maintained) pain, using rats whose sciatic nerves had been partially injured to simulate painful nerve damage humans can experience. In the U.S., they weren't getting the results they had obtained for several years of experimentation in Israel. They examined all aspects of their work to detect any variables that could account for the rats no longer showing a heightened sensitivity to touch, temperature and pain. What they found adds a new and potentially important aspect to the value of their research.

After checking everything about their rats and procedures, the critical variable was discovered-the American rat chow fed at Johns Hopkins. The soy content of the American rat chow, which had been lacking in the rats' Israeli diet, appeared to change the animals' sensitivity to pain, thus altering the outcome of the experiments. The researchers confirmed this finding by putting the rats back on a soy-free diet. Without the soy, the rats' sensitivity to pain (as it had been in during the ongoing studies in Israel) returned.

The unplanned and unforeseen impact of adding soy to the experimental animals' diet raised significant new possibilities for pain research. Future studies will try to pinpoint the mechanisms of pain and discover why there seem to be different kinds of pain that respond to different chemical and mechanical interventions. The results of this study have, of course, already increased interest in the role dietary soy might have in diminishing the pain and discomfort associated with various human ailments.

Shir Y, Ratner A, Raja SN, et al. Neuropathic pain following partial nerve injury in rats is suppressed by dietary soy. Neuroscience Letters, 240, pp73-76.