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Video abstract of original research paper "Effects of salt-loading hypertension on nociception in rats" published in the open access Journal of Pain Research by AO Afolabi, SK Mudashiru and IA Alagbonsi. Background: There is on going controversy on the effect of experimentally induced hypertension on nociception. The effect of salt-loading-induced hypertension on pain was studied in male rats. Method: Twenty-four male Sprague-Dawley rats (160--280 g) were divided into two groups. Group A (n = 12) was treated with normal-feed diet (control), while group B (n = 12) was treated with 8% salt-loaded diet for 10 weeks. After 10 weeks of the treatment, six rats each from groups A and B were used for blood pressure measurement, while the remaining six rats were used for both the tail-flick and formalin tests. Thermal and chemical pain test were assessed using tail immersion test (tail flick) and formalin test pain paradigms at onset of salt-loading diet and after 10 weeks of salt loading. Results: Chronic administration of salt-loading diet caused significant increases (P less than 0.001) in systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and mean arterial blood pressure. Moreover, salt-loading-induced hypertension was found to significantly reduce pain sensitivity in the tail-immersion test (P less than 0.001) and in the early and late phase of the formalin test (P less than 0.01). However, the hypoalgesia was higher in the late phase (94.8%) than in the early phase (56.8%) of the formalin test. Conclusion: The present study suggests that high salt-loading-induced hypertension causes hypoalgesia in rats, which might be due more to reduction in inflammatory response. Read the original research paper here: http://www.dovepress.com/effects-of-salt-loading-hypertension-on-nociception-in-rats-peer-reviewed-article-JPR