Abstract
Somatosensation encompasses a wide range of sensations including pain, itch, touch, and temperature and is essential for the detection of environmental stimuli, ultimately allowing an organism to escape, communicate, and adapt to its environment. Such sensations are detected by primary sensory neurons whose nerve endings are located in the skin. Compared to external stimuli, mechanisms underlying endogenous stimulation of primary sensory neurons, such as by lipids, are still largely unknown. Here, we focus on one of the endogenous bioactive lipids, sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), to investigate the physiological roles of S1P in pain and itch. We showed that S1P-induced calcium responses in sensory neurons through S1P receptors. Transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) and vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) are nonselective calcium-permeable ion channels that are known to be involved in pain and itch. Neurons that respond to S1P show reduced responsiveness when treated with antagonists that block either TRPA1 or TRPV1 alone or in combination. In addition, using single and double knockout mice (TRPA1; TRPV1; TRPA1/TRPV1) with loss of function of these channels, we demonstrated that both TRP channels are involved in S1P-induced neuronal responses in vitro. Next, we examined the effects of S1P on pain and itch responsiveness in freely behaving mice post-S1P injection into the cheek, neck, and hind paw. Our findings reveal that S1P induces both pain and itch in vivo and that these responses are partially dependent upon the TRPV1, but not TRPA1 channels.