As in human patients, evidence is accumulating that arthritis chronicity in animal models is associated not just with nociceptor sensitization, but also with bona-fide neuropathic changes, as highlighted by upregulated expression of the neuronal transcription factor ATF3 and other stress markers in DRGs of long-term arthritis models [33, 51, 52, 56, 57]. This evidence concerns the gene ATF3 and arthritic joint disease.