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Article: Naked mole-rats bare pain relief clues.
- Article from:
- Health & Medicine Week
- Article date:
- December 8, 2003
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2003 DEC 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- East African naked mole-rats, the only known cold-blooded mammal, have shown a rather heated response in lab tests that may have important implications for treating chronic pain in humans.
The blind, furless creatures that live underground in colonies lack a body chemical called Substance P, a neurotransmitter normally in the skin that sends pain signals to the central nervous system. The rats feel no immediate pain when cut, scraped or subjected to heat stimuli. They only feel some aches. But when the rats get a shot of Substance P, pain signaling resumes working as in other mammals.
"It was a complete surprise ...