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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 May 4.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2008 Dec 11;30(2):79–84. doi: 10.1016/j.tips.2008.10.008

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Proposed mechanisms for the peripherally mediated antihyperalgesic effects of cannabinoids. (a) Hypothesis 1 proposes that cannabinoids produce peripheral antihyperalgesia by activation of both MCRs and ICRs. (b) Hypothesis 2 proposes that different pain models (or routes of drug injection) selectively activate either MCR or ICR pathways. (c) Hypothesis 3 proposes that the net effect of cannabinoids on modulating nociception is due to activation of MCRs and/or ICRs located on multiple cell types that are capable of interacting. (d) Hypothesis 4 proposes that MCRs and ICRs interact in the same cell leading to desensitization of activity. Note that the selective involvement of MCR and/or ICR in each hypothesis is for illustrative purposes only.