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Neuroscience Medicine, 2012, 3, 314-320 /10.4236/nm.2012.33036 Published Online September 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/nm) Sex Differences in Scratching Behaviors Induced by Intradermal Injections of Pruritogenic Chemicals in C57BL/6 Mice 1,2,3# 4# 1# 1,5# 1# 1 1 Liang Liang , Yong Han , Ming Zhang , Chunwei Liu , Yabin Xie , Wenjuan Han , Sanjue Hu , 2* 1* Hua Zhang , Hui Xu 1Institute of Neuroscience, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China; 2Department of Neurosurgery, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China; 3Department of Neurosurgery, General Hospital of People’s Liberation Army Chendu Military Region, Chengdu, China; 4Department of Thoracic Surgery, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China; 5Class, School of Stomatology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China. * Email: xubz@ Received June 14th, 2012; revised July 13th, 2012; accepted July 20th, 2012 ABSTRACT Pruritus is an individual unpleasant sensation of human sensory nervous system. In the physiological condition it ex- certs a self-protective mechanism to protect the skin against external harmful agents. Pruritoceptive itch is also a major symptom of skin diseases and a common reason for consulting a dermatologist in clinic. It has been well known that both histamine-dependent and histamine-independent pathways mediate acute and chronic itch sensations. Previous studies have showed common neural pathways partially shared by itch and pain sensations, and significant sex differ- ences in pain sensation. However, sex difference in itch sensation has not been given too much attention as the majority of itch studies were done in male mice or rats till now. In th