BEHAVIORAL TESTS AS PAIN ASSESSMENT PARAMETERS IN AN EXPERIMENTAL MODEL OF OSTEOARTHRITIS IN RATS: A BRIEF REVIEW

INTRODUCTION: Osteoarthritis affects millions of people globally, causing chronic pain and impairing the quality of life of individuals To develop new treatments and better understand the mechanisms underlying osteoarthritis pain, researchers often turn to animal models, such as mice. However, assessing pain in animals is challenging, as they express pain in ways that differ from humans. Behavioral tests are crucial in the evaluation of pain in rat models of osteoarthritis, playing a key role in the research and development of strategies that assess pain in an experimental model. METHOD: For the development of the work, a careful search of scientific articles was carried out in the PubMed database, for the period from 2013 to 2023, The descriptors "behavioral tests and osteoarthritis in rats" were used. As inclusion criteria, original studies were considered if they presented the descriptors in the title or abstract and written in English. Commentaries, books, and literature reviews were excluded. The analysis resulted in 22 scientific articles, which met the selection criteria. findings: Testing in experimental models of osteoarthritis in rats is essential for assessing pain and joint function. The most common tests include assessing tasks affected by pain and joint dysfunction, such as walking, climbing stairs, maintaining balance, and measuring pain sensitivity through increasing pressures on the paw