MrgprC11 sensory neurons mediate glabrous skin itch.

Itch arising from glabrous skin (palms and soles) has attracted limited attention within the field due to the lack of methodology. This is despite glabrous itch arising from many medical conditions such as plantar and palmar psoriasis, dyshidrosis, and cholestasis. Therefore, we developed a mouse glabrous skin behavioral assay to investigate the contribution of three previously identified pruriceptive neurons in glabrous skin itch.

The signaling pathway and polymorphisms of Mrgprs.

Mas-related G protein-coupled receptors (Mrgprs) are a family of receptors implicated in a diverse array of human diseases. Since their discovery in 2001, great progress has been made in determining their relation to human disease. Vital for Mrgprs therapeutic efforts across all disease disciplines is a thorough understanding of Mrgprs signal transduction pathways and polymorphisms, as these offer insights into new drug candidates, existing discrepancies in drug response, and differences in disease susceptibility.

Visualizing the Itch-Sensing Skin Arbors.

Diverse sensory neurons exhibit distinct neuronal morphologies with a variety of axon terminal arborizations subserving their functions. Because of its clinical significance, the molecular and cellular mechanisms of itch are being intensely studied. However, a complete analysis of itch-sensing terminal arborization is missing.