Everyone needs to scratch an itch from time to time, but how the body senses an itch has been a mystery. Now researchers in Arizona have identified nerve cells believed to be responsible for itchy sensations.
The discovery may lead the way to better treatments for itching, which can be a major problem for people with some ailments, including HIV infection, kidney failure and liver disease.
For years, scientists have debated how the body produces an itchy sensation, with some believing that itching is actually a form of pain and others suspecting that there are specific brain cells that control itching.
Now investigators at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix have gathered evidence suggesting that itchiness and pain arise from different sources. Drs. David Andrew and A D Craig have identified a group of nerve cells that become activated when an itch occurs. The findings are published in the recent issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience.
In the study, the researchers applied histamine–a substance that triggers an itch–to the skin of cats. Within 1 to 3 minutes, this test produced a response in a group of nerves in a part of the spinal cord called the dorsal horn. This response peaked after an average of 5 minutes, but the response of some of the nerves lasted as long as 30 minutes.
“Our findings provide strong evidence supporting the specific nature of the sensation of itch,” the authors conclude.
Even though itch and pain share a common pathway, the experiments show that the itch-sensitive nerves are distinct from those linked to pain.
The discovery of the itch-specific nerves is “a breakthrough in our understanding of itch mechanisms,” Dr. Martin Schmelz, of the Institute for Physiology in Erlangen, Germany, notes in an editorial that accompanies the study. Treatments that target these nerves may prove to be effective at relieving itching, he concludes.
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