Despite the contribution of mechanical pain to the morbidity associated with inflammation and trauma, the primary sensory neurons that convey this sensation have not been identified. Using knockout mice, the loss of the low abundance vesicular glutamate transporter VGLUT3, expressed by a small subset of peripheral sensory neurons projecting to areas implicated in persistent pain caused by injury, is now shown to specifically impair mechanical pain sensation.
- Rebecca P. Seal
- Xidao Wang
- Robert H. Edwards
