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Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Cheek Injection Model for Simultaneous Measurement of Pain and Itch-related Behaviors
Published on: September 27, 2019
The neurobiology of itch
Akihiko Ikoma1, Martin Steinhoff, Sonja Ständer
1Department of Dermatology, Kyoto University, Shogin-Kawahara-cho 54, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
Abstract:
The neurobiology of itch, which is formally known as pruritus, and its interaction with pain have been illustrated by the complexity of specific mediators, itch-related neuronal pathways and the central processing of itch. Scratch-induced pain can abolish itch, and analgesic opioids can generate itch, which indicates an antagonistic interaction. However, recent data suggest that there is a broad overlap between pain- and itch-related peripheral mediators and/or receptors, and there are astonishingly similar mechanisms of neuronal sensitization in the PNS and the CNS. The antagonistic interaction between pain and itch is already exploited in pruritus therapy, and current research concentrates on the identification of common targets for future analgesic and antipruritic therapy.
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