Intracerebroventricular Cannulation

Seven days following sciatic nerve CCI, the skull of animal was fixed in the stereotaxic apparatus and a stainless steel guide cannula (No. 23 and 10 mm in length) was implanted (coordinate of AP = −0.6, DV = −3.5 and ML = 1.5 from the skull level)³⁰ according to the rat brain atlas of Paxinos and Watson.³¹ The implanted cannula was fixed on the skull with dental cement. The cannula was kept open using sterile oil-impregnated copper wire. The rats were placed in a room with controlled temperature until they regained consciousness. Five days following stereotaxic surgery were considered as recovery time and the experiments were carried out at 14 days post-CCI. The ICV injection was performed by using a Hamilton syringe through the guide cannulas.