Evidence for a novel, neurohumoral antinociceptive mechanism mediated by peripheral capsaicin-sensitive nociceptors in conscious rats

Stimulation of capsaicin-sensitive peripheral sensory nerve terminals induces remote anti-inflammatory effects throughout the body of anesthetized rats and guinea-pigs mediated by somatostatin. As somatostatin has also antinociceptive effects, the study aimed at investigating whether similar remote antinociceptive effects can be demonstrated in awake animals.In conscious rats, nociceptive nerve endings of the right hind paw decentralized by cutting the sciatic and saphenous nerves 18h before were chemically stimulated, and drop of the noxious heat threshold (heat hyperalgesia) induced by prior (18h before) plantar incision was measured on the contralateral, left hind paw using an increasing-temperature water bath.

Source: Neuropeptides - February 9, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: G ábor Pethő, Kata Bölcskei, Réka Füredi, Bálint Botz, Teréz Bagoly, Erika Pintér, János Szolcsányi Source Type: research