Micropore surgical tape

To induce muscle hyperalgesia, the hind limbs of rats were subjected to mechanical vibration with a laboratory vortex mixer (Digital Vortex Genie II; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA), as previously described ^{3 (link)15 (link)21 (link)}. These rats were anesthetized with 3% isoflurane in oxygen before one hind leg was affixed to the platform of the vortex mixer with Micropore® surgical tape (Thermo Fisher Scientific) so that the knee and ankle joint were both at 90°, without rotational torque on the leg. Each hind leg was vibrated at a frequency of 60–80 Hz with 5-mm peak-to-peak displacement amplitude for 15 minutes. These vibration frequencies are within the range produced by hand-held power tools (35–150 Hz) ^{41 (link)}.
For rats that were used to analyze whether Kv 4.3 or NRSF (Fig. 2, 3) may contribute to the mechanical hyperalgesia in rats exposed to vibration-injury, both legs were sequentially vibrated. For rats that were used to demonstrate that vibration-injury causes muscle hyperalgesia (Fig. 1) or to evaluate the effect of intrathecal antisense for Kv4.3 (Fig. 4) only one leg was exposed to vibration-injury.