Glial cells contribute to pain

Pain Research Pain hypersensitivity can spread to unaffected body regions immediately surrounding the initial insult. Sometimes it can even spread to the opposite site of the body or to large body areas and cause widespread pain. Kronschlager et al. discovered a form of synaptic plasticity in the spinal cord that may explain the spread of pain hypersensitivity. This plasticity was induced by the activation of glial cells. The spread was mediated by gliotransmitters that diffuse widely, even reaching the cerebrospinal fluid at biologically relevant concentrations. Science , this issue p. [1144][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aah5715