Nature Communications (Aug 2016)

Dorsal horn neurons release extracellular ATP in a VNUT-dependent manner that underlies neuropathic pain

  • Takahiro Masuda,
  • Yui Ozono,
  • Satsuki Mikuriya,
  • Yuta Kohro,
  • Hidetoshi Tozaki-Saitoh,
  • Ken Iwatsuki,
  • Hisayuki Uneyama,
  • Reiko Ichikawa,
  • Michael W. Salter,
  • Makoto Tsuda,
  • Kazuhide Inoue

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12529
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Purinergic receptor activation by extracellular ATP in the dorsal horn contributes to neuropathic pain, but which cell types release ATP in this context is not known. The authors show in a mouse model of neuropathic pain that ATP is released by dorsal horn neurons, a process requiring the vesicular nucleotide transporter, VNUT.