ArticleNature communications2023
An analgesic pathway from parvocellular oxytocin neurons to the periaqueductal gray in rats.
Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mapping of oxytocin- and arginine vasopressin-expressing neurons with calbindin 1 or reelin in the male mouse brain.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Oxytocin facilitates social behavior of female rats via selective modulation of interneurons in the medial prefrontal cortex.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Hypothalamic and sex-related hormones in migraine.The journal of headache and pain · 2026Review
- Recent progress in chronic pain-related negative emotions and cognitive dysfunction: insights into the mechanisms underlying neural circuitry.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2026Review
- Circuit logic of oxytocin and vasopressin complementary actions.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Behavioral assessment of pain in rodents: advances from evoked responses to spontaneous states and multimodal approaches.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Tactile stimulation reverses painful stimuli outcomes via PVN-VTA oxytocin circuitry and dopaminergic regulation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Characterization of a rat model expressing Cre recombinase in oxytocinergic neurons: NTac:SD-OxtNeuroscience · 2025Article
- Chemoarchitectural studies of the rat hypothalamus and zona incerta.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Oxytocin signaling regulates maternally directed behavior during early life.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Complexity of the Hypothalamic Oxytocin System and its Involvement in Brain Functions and Diseases.Neuroscience bulletin · 2025Review
- Vasopressin and oxytocin excite BNST neurons via oxytocin receptors, which reduce anxious arousal.Cell reports · 2025Article
- Oxytocin facilitates human touch-induced play behavior in rats.Current biology : CB · 2025Article
- Navigating Central Oxytocin Transport: Known Realms and Uncharted Territories.The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry · 2025Review
- The paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus: a key node in the control of behavioural states.The Journal of physiology · 2025Review
- Analgesic effect of oxytocin in alcohol-dependent male and female rats.Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Chronic Pain and Comorbid Emotional Disorders: Neural Circuitry and Neuroimmunity Pathways.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Affective touch reduces histamine evoked itch experience.PloS one · 2025Article
- The Hypothalamic Medial Preoptic Area-Paraventricular Nucleus Circuit Modulates Depressive-Like Behaviors in a Mouse Model of Postpartum Depression.Research (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Article
- Acute, chronic and conditioned effects of intranasal oxytocin in the mu-opioid receptor knockout mouse model of autism: Social context matters.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
31 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) exerts prominent analgesic effects via central and peripheral action. However, the precise analgesic pathways recruited by OT are largely elusive. Here we discovered a subset of OT neurons whose projections preferentially terminate on OT receptor (OTR)-expressing neurons in the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG). Using a newly generated line of transgenic rats (OTR-IRES-Cre), we determined that most of the vlPAG OTR expressing cells targeted by OT projections are GABAergic. Ex vivo stimulation of parvocellular OT axons in the vlPAG induced local OT release, as measured with OT sensor GRAB. In vivo, optogenetically-evoked axonal OT release in the vlPAG of as well as chemogenetic activation of OTR vlPAG neurons resulted in a long-lasting increase of vlPAG neuronal activity. This lead to an indirect suppression of sensory neuron activity in the spinal cord and strong analgesia in both female and male rats. Altogether, we describe an OT-vlPAG-spinal cord circuit that is critical for analgesia in both inflammatory and neuropathic pain models.
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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.