Volume 9 Issue 8, August 2003
Endothelin-1 (ET-1) mediates pain states ranging from trauma to cancer. On page 1055 of this issue, Khodorova et al. map a new peripheral analgesic pathway involving ET-1. In this pathway, ET-1 is released locally by keratinocytes after cutaneous injury, and triggers pain through endothelin-A receptors of local nociceptors. ET-1 also coincidentally produces analgesia by activating endothelin-B receptors (ET-B) on keratinocytes, inducing them to secrete β-endorphin, which in turn binds to the local nociceptors. The cover depicts a confocal image of rat epidermis, localizing ET-B (orange) on the surface and β-endorphin (green) in the cytoplasm of keratinocytes in the upper epidermal layers. (Magnification, x20.)
Editorial
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