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. 2019 Sep 24;20(19):4737. doi: 10.3390/ijms20194737

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© 2019 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Scheme 2 — Oxytocinergic descending hypothalamic-spinal circuit promotes anti-nociception and analgesia. Oxytocin is synthesized in neurons located within the hypothalamic nuclei (nucleus paraventricularis of the hypothalamus; PVN) and the supraoptic nucleus (SOP). Magnocellular neurons are distributed in the PVN and in the SOP and project to the posterior pituitary lobe, where oxytocin is released into the systemic blood circulation and impact neural transmission of the amygdala and hippocampus. Parvocellular oxytocinergic neurons (PVN) release oxytocin in the brainstem, spinal cord, and trigeminal ganglion [5,52,54,55,56,57,58]. Abbreviations: PNV—nucleus paraventricularis; SOP—supraoptic nucleus; SCDC—spinal cord dorsal column; DRG—dorsal root ganglion; GABA—gamma aminobutyric acid; CGRP—calcitonin-gene related peptide; COX—cyclooxygenase; PG—prostaglandine.