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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Pain. 2009 Sep;10(9):895–926. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2009.06.012

Figure 7.

Figure 7

Key effectors of central sensitization in the dorsal horn. Subcutaneous injection of capsaicin, a potent inducer of central sensitization, causes rapid activation of ERK and CREB (upper panels) as well as a PKC-induced phosphorylation of the NR1 subunit of NMDAR in c-Fos–positive neurons of the superficial laminas of the spinal cord (middle panels). ERK activation participates in transcriptional and post-translational changes, CREB activation promotes transcription of several genes involved in central sensitization. NR1 phosphorylation by PKC increases NMDAR activity. ERK and PKC are activated through the increase of intracellular calcium that occurs during stimulation of nociceptive fibers (lower panels). Signals are shown in pseudocolor from blue (weak intensity) to red (strong intensity). ERK and CREB staining are from Reference 141; NR1 phosphorylation staining from Reference 32, and calcium imaging from Reference 179.