Social and environmental influences on opioid sensitivity in rats: importance of an opioid's relative efficacy at the mu-receptor
by
Smith MA, Chisholm KA, Bryant PA, Greene JL,
McClean JM, Stoops WW, Yancey DL.
Department of Psychology,
Davidson College,
Davidson, NC, 28035-7037, USA
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2005 Mar 19

ABSTRACT

RATIONALE: Evidence indicates that social and environmental enrichment can influence the functional maturation of the central nervous system and may affect an organism's sensitivity to centrally acting drugs. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of social and environmental enrichment on sensitivity to mu-opioids possessing a range of relative efficacies at the mu-receptor. METHODS: Rats were obtained at weaning (21 days) and divided into two groups immediately upon arrival. Isolated rats were housed individually in opaque laboratory cages with no visual or tactile contact with other rats; enriched rats were housed socially in groups of four in large cages and given various novel objects on a daily basis. After 6 weeks under these conditions, the effects of morphine, levorphanol, buprenorphine, butorphanol, and nalbuphine were examined in the warm-water, tail-withdrawal procedure and the place-conditioning procedure. RESULTS: In the tail-withdrawal procedure, isolated and enriched rats did not differ in sensitivity to morphine (1.0-30 mg/kg) and levorphanol (0.3-10 mg/kg), but enriched rats were more sensitive to buprenorphine (0.03-3.0 mg/kg), butorphanol (0.3-30 mg/kg), and nalbuphine (0.3-30 mg/kg). In drug combination tests, butorphanol and nalbuphine antagonized the effects of morphine in isolated rats under conditions in which they produced high levels of antinociception in enriched rats. In the place-conditioning procedure, doses of 10 morphine and 3.0 levorphanol established a place preference in both groups of rats, whereas doses of 0.3 buprenorphine, 3.0 butorphanol, and 10 nalbuphine established a place preference only in enriched rats. CONCLUSIONS: These findings may be taken as evidence that enriched rats are more sensitive than isolated rats to the effects of lower-efficacy mu-opioids and that social and environmental enrichment leads to functional alterations in opioid receptor populations.

Mu3
SOD Mu
Naloxonazine
Endomorphins
Dihydroetorphine
Receptor subtypes
Mu : gender and age
Morphine/verapamil
Fentanyl and ketamine
Dynorphin and dopamine
Genes, pharmacology and mu
Depression, opioids and the HPA
Kappa upregulation and addiction
Mice without mu don't miss their moms
Mu-opioid receptors, drugs and reward
Opioids, depression and learned helplessness

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