Evidence map›Paper›PMID 17459586›Full record

ArticlePain2007

Mast cell degranulation activates a pain pathway underlying migraine headache.

Dan Levy, Rami Burstein, Vanessa Kainz, Moshe Jakubowski, Andrew M Strassman

Open access · greenAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Pain, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 185 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
185citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
6.9field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

185 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 409 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  12. Article
  13. MRGPRX2 as a novel therapeutic target in headache.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2026
    Review
  14. Non-neuronal targets for migraine therapy.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2026
    Review
  15. Review
  16. Stromal Cell-Mast Cell Communication Orchestrates Anti-Viral Immunity in the Meninges.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026
    Article
  17. Review
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

125 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Dan LevyDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Harvard Institutes of Medicine, Room 856, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, MA 02115, USA. dlevy1@bidmc.harvard.edu
Rami Burstein
Vanessa Kainz
Moshe Jakubowski
Andrew M Strassman
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center · USHarvard University · USChristie's · GB

Funding

NEUROPHYSIOLOGY OF CRANIAL HEADACHER01NS032534 · NINDS · BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER · PI STRASSMAN, ANDREW MARK · 1996 to 2008
$2.0M
NEUROBIOLOGY OF ANOREXIA INDUCED BY MIGRAINE PAINR01DE013347 · NIDCR · BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER · PI BURSTEIN, RAMI · 2000 to 2004
$1.3M
Mast Cells: Role in the Pathophysiology of HeadacheR01NS046502 · NINDS · BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER · PI LEVY, DAN · 2004 to 2007
$926k
NIDCR NIH HHS R01 DE013347NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS032534NINDS NIH HHS R01NS032534NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS046502NINDS NIH HHS R01NS046502
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Intracranial headaches such as that of migraine are generally accepted to be mediated by prolonged activation of meningeal nociceptors but the mechanisms responsible for such nociceptor activation are poorly understood. In this study, we examined the hypothesis that meningeal nociceptors can be activated locally through a neuroimmune interaction with resident mast cells, granulated immune cells that densely populate the dura mater. Using in vivo electrophysiological single unit recording of meningeal nociceptors in the rat we observed that degranulation of dural mast cells using intraperitoneal administration of the basic secretagogue agent compound 48/80 (2 mg/kg) induced a prolonged state of excitation in meningeal nociceptors. Such activation was accompanied by increased expression of the phosphorylated form of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (pERK), an anatomical marker for nociceptor activation. Mast cell-induced nociceptor interaction was also associated with downstream activation of the spinal trigeminal nucleus as indicated by an increase in c-fos expression. Our findings provide evidence linking dural mast cell degranulation to prolonged activation of the trigeminal pain pathway believed to underlie intracranial headaches such as that of migraine.

Indexed as

Afferent PathwaysAnimalsCell DegranulationDura MaterElectrophysiologyExtracellular Signal-Regulated MAP KinasesMaleMast CellsMigraine DisordersNociceptorsPhosphorylationp-Methoxy-N-methylphenethylamineProto-Oncogene Proteins c-fosRatsRats, Sprague-DawleyTrigeminal Nucleus, SpinalExtracellular Signal-Regulated MAP Kinasesp-Methoxy-N-methylphenethylamineProto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos

Identifiers

PMID17459586
PMCPMC2045157
OpenAlexW2018174825

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.