Abstract
Over the past 30 years, animal models of migraine have led to the identification of novel drug treatment and helped to clarify the pathophysiological mechanisms of migraine. This review article describes the recent status in animal models of migraine.
Migraine models can be divided into three groups: vascular, neurovascular and genetic models. Models of carotid artery and carotid arteriovenous anastomoses constriction are the main types of vascular models.
Examples of more complex neurovascular (trigeminovascular) models are: electrical stimulation of trigeminal ganglion, chemical stimulation of the meninges and electrical stimulation of the superior sagittal sinus. In neurovascular models, as the main marker of nociception the number of Fos immunoreactive neurons in trigeminal nucleus caudalis is used.
In familiar hemiplegic migraine, rare monogenic subtype of migraine with aura, three genes have been identified, which all encode ion transporters. Animal models expressing familiar hemiplegic migraine mutations (genetic animal models of migraine) can bring additional molecular insight into the pathophysiology of migraine as shown in experiments concerning cortical spreading depression in mice with these mutations.