Involvement of NO in Pain after Peripheral Nerve Injury

1　INTRODUCTIONPeripheral nerve injury can produce a chronic neuropathicpain that is characterized by spontaneous ongoing pain,painresulting from stimuli that normally are innocuous(allodynia) ,or increased pain resulting from normal noxiousstimuli (hyperalgesia) . Central and peripheral neuronalsensitizations are responsible for the initiation andmaintenance of chronic neuropathic pain following nerveinjury. Several lines of evidence indicate that neuronalsensitizations are at leastpartia…

Involvement of NO in Pain after Peripheral Nerve Injury

Recently, considerable progress in our understanding of the mechanisms of neuropathic pain has been made because of development of several suitable animal models. Neuronal sensitization is believed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of neuropathic pain following peripheral nerve injury.There is much evidence that nitric oxide (NO) is involved in the development and maintenance of pain following peripheral nerve injury. The main focus of this article will be on the recent development in understanding the importance of NO acting as a mediator or messenger in the nociceptive signal processing of neuropathic pain. This information suggests a specific avenue for development of more effective clinical medication for neuropathic pain following nerve injury.