Visceral pain from neuroanatomy to receptors – focus on gastrointestinal pain

Abstract

The mechanisms and nervous structures involved in visceral pain are poorly understood, although visceral pain is one of the most debilitating clinical types of pain. We performed a literature review with the aim of identifying the distinct features of visceral pain and their potential use for identifying new therapeutic targets. In this article, we present the main structures involved in the generation and transmission of visceral pain, the main experimental techniques currently used for inducing and measuring visceral pain and the main mediators and receptors that play an essential role in this particular type of pain.

Keywords

• visceral pain
• visceral pain models
• visceral pain mediators