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Nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in modulation of pain,cerebral ischemia,epilepsy,morphine tolerance and dependence in the central nervous system.The novel peptide apelin is an endogenous ligand of putative receptor protein related to the angiotensin receptor AT1 (APJ).Sdudies showed that apelin could increase the production of NO in the central nervous system,in other word the physiological effect of apelin is associated with NO.Caudate nucleus is one of the high-level centers engaged in pain modulation.We have previously investigated the pain threshold of rats by means of radioimmunoassay and immunohistochemistry.Our data suggest that NO in the caudate nucleus can transmit pain messages.However,the molecular mechanism of NO participating pain modulation and the relationship between NO and the expression of apelin receptor mRNA have not been reported.