Table 2. Signaling molecules in spinal astrocytes.

Most of them are regulated in chronic pain conditions and have a role in modulating chronic pain.

Signaling molecule	Change in expression in chronic pain	Role in chronic pain	Refs
pERK	Upregulation	Maintains neuropathic pain	Zhuang et al., 2005
pJNK	Upregulation	Maintains neuropathic pain	Zhuang et al., 2006a
p-c-Jun	Upregulation	Not tested	Zhuang et al., 2006a
JNK1	Not tested	Not tested	Zhuang et al., 2006a
Neurokinin-2 receptor	Not tested	Maintains neuropathic pain	Garry et al., 2005
Interlukin-1β	Upregulation	Maintains neuropathic pain	Zhang et al., 2005
Glutamate transporter-I	Downregulation	Suppresses neuropathic pain	Sung et al., 2003
Endothelin receptor-B	Upregulation	Not tested	Peters et al., 2003
Connexin-43	Upregulation	Not tested	Lee et al., 2005
bFGF	Upregulation	Maintains neuropathic pain	Madiai et al., 2005