Physiology of Pain Receptor (nociceptor)

概要

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Pain is perceived when the noxious stimuli are taransduced to neural electrical signals (action potentials), and are transmitted in the peripheral axon of nociceptors to the spinal cord and then further transmitted through the thalamus to the cerebral cortex. The first event that occurs after noxious stimulus arriving at the nociceptor terminals is energy transduction to electrical signals (receptor potentials). Nociceptors like polymodal receptors that respond to multiple modes of stimuli are considered to have multiple transducers and/or ion channels on the nociceptor terminals. This review will provide a short introduction on the present status of research on transducers (heat transducers, e. g. VR1 and VRL-1), ion channels (e. g. P2X3 receptors) and receptor molecules (e. g. bradykinin receptors and prostaglandin receptors) that are involved in transduction in nerve terminals. Hyperalgesia is common in injured or inflamed tissues, and one of the mechanism for hyperalgesia is sensitization of nociceptors by inflammatory mediators. Samples of nocieptor sensitization by inflammatory mediators (bradykinin, histamine, prostaglandins, ATP and NGF) are introduced, and possible molecular mechanism is also touched.
一般社団法人日本ペインクリニック学会の論文