The antinociceptive response to nicotinic agonists in a mouse model of postoperative pain.

Background: Nicotine, the prototypical broad spectrum agonist at central nicotinic receptors, has analgesic action after surgery. Various subtype-specific nicotinic agonists have antinociceptive effects in animal models, but the response is highly dependent on the model tested. In an effort to determine what nicotinic subtypes might be targeted in future clinical studies, we tested agonists selective for alpha 4 beta 2 and alpha 7 containing nicotinic receptors in a mouse model of postoperative pain.