Nitroglycerin as a model of migraine: clinical and preclinical review

•Nitroglycerin (NTG) is a reliable experimental clinical and preclinical approach to study migraine.•It triggers a migraine-like attack in patients that is indistinguishable from the spontaneous migraine.•NTG mediates migraine-like behavioural and neuronal outcomes in rodents; validated by their response to therapeutics.•Limitations: not effective in all patients, large doses required in animal studies, does not predict efficacy of all therapies.•Adaptations/improvements to the model include reducing the dose by combining with models of ‘latent sensitisation’.