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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Apr 17.
Published in final edited form as: J Neurosci. 2012 Oct 17;32(42):14532–14537. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3509-12.2012

Figure 2. MrgprD is required for β-alanine -induced scratching in mice.

Figure 2

(A) Cheek injection of β-alanine induced site-directed scratching in WT but not MrgprD−/− mice. β-alanine induced significant scratching in WT during the first 15 min after injection in a dose-dependent manner (WT, 50 mM, n=6; 20 mM, n=5; 10 mM, n=5). By contrast, few scratching bouts were detected in MrgprD−/− mice after β-alanine cheek injection (n=5). L-alanine, the proteinogenic α-amino acid, did not induce a significant itch response (WT, n=6; KO, n=8). (B) Orally administering β-alanine induced itch in wild-type (WT) but not MrgprD−/− (KO) mice. The total number of scratching bouts during the 40 min after β-alanine feeding (40 mg/kg body weight) was significantly higher in WT mice than in MrgprD−/− mice (n=5 per genotype) (*WT vs. KO. All error bars represent standard error of the mean (SEM). * p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001; Student’s t-test.