Neurochemistry international
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The present study was designed to examine whether somatostatin analog octreotide (OCT) was involved in antinociception in the ventrolateral orbital cortex (VLO) and determine whether this effect had a sex difference between male and female rats. The radiant heat-evoked tail flick (TF) reflex was used as an index of acute nociceptive response in lightly anesthetized rats. The number of flinches evoked by formalin injection into the hindpaw was used to evaluate inflammatory persistent pain in conscious rats. ⋯ Pretreatment with c-SOM (25.0 µg in 0.5 µl) into the VLO totally antagonized the 10 ng OCT-induced inhibition of the flinches in both phases in female rats. Additionally, single administration of c-SOM into the VLO failed to alter tail reflex latencies and formalin-induced nociceptive behaviors in female rats. The results provide the first valuable evidence that somatostatin and its receptors are involved in antinociception in acute heat-evoked nociception and inflammatory persistent pain only in female rats, not male rats, in the VLO.