ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021
Estrogens influence female itch sensitivity via the spinal gastrin-releasing peptide receptor neurons.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Spinal Mechanisms of Testosterone Involved in Itch Regulation.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2026Article
- Elucidating the Multi-Target Anti-Pruritic Mechanism ofCurrent issues in molecular biology · 2026Article
- Pre-existing skin diseases as predictors of post-burn pruritus.American journal of surgery · 2024Article
- Article
- Estrogen alleviates acute and chronic itch in mice.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2023Article
- Function of gastrin-releasing peptide receptors in ocular itch transmission in the mouse trigeminal sensory system.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2023Article
- Characterization of the expression of gastrin-releasing peptide and its receptor in the trigeminal and spinal somatosensory systems of Japanese macaque monkeys: Insight into humans.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2022Article
- APP Knock-In Mice Produce E22P-Aβ Exhibiting an Alzheimer's Disease-like Phenotype with Dysregulation of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor Expression.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Footedness for scratching itchy eyes in rodents.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Nanobody-based RFP-dependent Cre recombinase for selective anterograde tracing in RFP-expressing transgenic animals.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Involvement of Histamine HInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
There are sex differences in somatosensory sensitivity. Circulating estrogens appear to have a pronociceptive effect that explains why females are reported to be more sensitive to pain than males. Although itch symptoms develop during pregnancy in many women, the underlying mechanism of female-specific pruritus is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that estradiol, but not progesterone, enhances histamine-evoked scratching behavior indicative of itch in female rats. Estradiol increased the expression of the spinal itch mediator, gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP), and increased the histamine-evoked activity of itch-processing neurons that express the GRP receptor (GRPR) in the spinal dorsal horn. The enhancement of itch behavior by estradiol was suppressed by intrathecal administration of a GRPR blocker. In vivo electrophysiological analysis showed that estradiol increased the histamine-evoked firing frequency and prolonged the response of spinal GRP-sensitive neurons in female rats. On the other hand, estradiol did not affect the threshold of noxious thermal pain and decreased touch sensitivity, indicating that estradiol separately affects itch, pain, and touch modalities. Thus, estrogens selectively enhance histamine-evoked itch in females via the spinal GRP/GRPR system. This may explain why itch sensation varies with estrogen levels and provides a basis for treating itch in females by targeting GRPR.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.