The Involvement of Serotonin and Norepinephrine in Opiate Analgesia in the Mouse
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Authors
Fowler, Adele R.
Issue Date
1992
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
The present study investigated the involvement of the
neurotransmitters, serotonin and norepinephrine, in opiate
analgesia in mice. This was done through the use of agonists
selective for each opiate receptor subtype and serotonin and
norepinephrine re-uptake blockade to increase the amount of
monoamine in the synapse. Mice were pretreated with the
selective serotonin re-uptake blocker, zimelidine or the
selective norepinephrine re-uptake blocker, desipramine and
then injected with an agonist which was selective for one of
the opiate receptor subtypes, µ1, µ2, a, k 1 or k 3. Analgesia
was determined by a measurement of tail-flick latency when
exposed to heat. These results were compared to control mice
treated only with the selective agonists to facilitate the
detection of in any potentiation of analgesic response and thus
any involvement of the monoamines in analgesia. The results
of these experiments demonstrated that serotonin was
involved in the mediation of µ2 and k 1 analgesia. This was
shown by significant shifts in the dose-response curves for
the antinociceptive response when agonist injection was
combined with pretreatment of zimelidine. Likewise,
norepinephrine was found to be involved in the mediation of
spinal a analgesia as shown by potentiation by desipramine.
These findings help to clarify the mechanisms through which
the different opioid receptors work to mediate analgesia.
Description
iv, 32 p.
Citation
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License
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