We have shown that somatostatin released from activated capsaicin-sensitive nociceptive nerve endings during inflammatory processes elicits systemic anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. With the help of somatostatin receptor subtype 4 gene-deleted mice (sst4 ؊/؊ ), we provide here several lines of evidence that this receptor has a protective role in a variety of inflammatory disease models; several symptoms are more severe in the sst4 knockout animals than in their wild-type counterparts. Acute carrageenaninduced paw edema and mechanical hyperalgesia, inflammatory pain in the early phase of adjuvant-evoked chronic arthritis, and oxazolone-induced delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction in the skin are much greater in mice lacking the sst 4 receptor. Airway inflammation and consequent bronchial hyperreactivity elicited by intranasal lipopolysaccharide administration are also markedly enhanced in sst 4 knockouts, including increased perivascular/peribronchial edema, neutrophil/macrophage infiltration, mucus-producing goblet cell hyperplasia, myeloperoxidase activity, and IL-1, TNF-␣, and IFN-␥ expression in the inflamed lung. It is concluded that during these inflammatory conditions the released somatostatin has pronounced counterregulatory effects through sst4 receptor activation. Thus, this receptor is a promising novel target for developing anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anti-asthmatic drugs.allergic contact dermatitis ͉ arthritis ͉ capsaicin-sensitive afferents ͉ endotoxin-induced pneumonitis ͉ inflammatory cytokines