Purpose: To explore the potential mechanisms of glutamate and its receptors in stress-induced hyperalgesia.
Materials and methods: The stress-induced hyperalgesia, glutamate and its receptors are listed as key items in the pubmed database and the related articles are searched.
Results: Glutamate level is increased under stress and associated with stress-induced hyperalgesia. Moreover, the role of glutamate in stress-induced hyperalgesia depends on its subtypes of its receptors.
Conclusions: Increased glutamate during stress connect with ionotropic glutamate receptors can prompt hyperalgesia, but connect with metabotropic glutamate receptors can inhibit hyperalgesia.
Keywords: Stress-induced hyperalgesia; glutamate; glutamate receptor; pain.