Search results for "Opioid peptide"
showing 10 items of 22 documents
Gene Transcription Alterations Associated with Decrease of Ethanol Intake Induced by Naltrexone in the Brain of Wistar Rats
2006
Preclinical and clinical studies suggest that the administration of the opioid antagonist naltrexone decreases the intake of ethanol. However, the neuroplastic adaptations in the brain associated to reduction of ethanol consumption remains to be elucidated. The aim of the study was to identify gene transcription alterations underlying the attenuation of voluntary ethanol intake by administration of naltrexone in rats. Increasing doses of naltrexone (0.7 mg/kg, 4 days and 1.4 mg/kg/day, 4 days) to rats with acquired high preferring ethanol consumption (>3.5 g of ethanol/kg/day) decreased voluntary ethanol intake (50%). Voluntary ethanol consumption altered mu-opioid receptor function in the …
Opioid escalation in patients with cancer pain: the effect of age.
2006
Elderly people are commonly considered more susceptible to opioid effects. However, no data regarding the need for opioid escalation in patients already receiving opioids for the management of chronic pain are available. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the differences between younger and older patients during the crucial phase of opioid titration. One hundred consecutive patients with cancer pain requiring further opioid dose refinement were recruited for this cohort study. Pain intensity, dose of opioids, number of opioids used (need to switch), routes of administration used, and opioid-related symptoms were measured from admission until dose stabilization. Opioid escalation inde…
Insulin acts at different CNS sites to decrease acute sucrose intake and sucrose self-administration in rats.
2008
Findings from our laboratory and others have demonstrated that the hormone insulin has chronic effects within the CNS to regulate energy homeostasis and to decrease brain reward function. In this study, we compared the acute action of insulin to decrease intake of a palatable food in two different behavioral tasks—progressive ratios sucrose self-administration and mu opioid-stimulated sucrose feeding—when administered into several insulin-receptive sites of the CNS. We tested insulin efficacy within the medial hypothalamic arcuate (ARC) and paraventricular (PVN) nuclei, the nucleus accumbens, and the ventral tegmental area. Administration of insulin at a dose that has no chronic effect on …
Effects of endotoxin on neurally-mediated gastric acid secretion in the rat.
1998
Abstract The effects of a peripheral administration of E. coli endotoxin on neurally-mediated gastric acid secretion and the role of endogenous opioids or PAF receptors in endotoxin effects have been evaluated in the continuously perfused stomach of the anaesthetized rat. Gastric acid secretion stimulated by distension (20 cm H2O) was reduced dose-dependently by single intravenous bolus injection of endotoxin (0.1–10 μg kg−1). Doses of 5 μg kg−1 induced a peak reduction of distension-stimulated acid output and significantly reduced the secretory response induced by an intravenous bolus of 2-deoxy-d-glucose (150 mg kg−1). This dose of endotoxin did not significantly modify mean systemic arte…
Multiplicity of Opioidergic Pathways Related to Cardiovascular Innervation: Differential Contribution of All Three Opioid Precursors
1988
The endogenous opioid family consists of the three precursors proenkephalin (proenkephalin A), prodynorphin (proenkephalin B), and proopiomelanocortin (POMC), from which various opioid and nonopioid peptides can be processed, apparently in a tissue-specific manner (cf. Civelli et al. 1984; Goldstein 1984; Herz 1984; Udenfriend and Kilpatrick 1984; Civelli et al. 1985; Khachaturian et al. 1985; Kosterlitz 1985). Their distribution in areas of the CNS which are involved in cardiovascular regulation is well documented. The biochemistry and functions of endocrine (pituitary and adrenal) opioids have also been well characterized (cf. Millan and Herz 1985). The conception that endocrine and CNS o…
Serotoninergic innervation of nonprincipal cells in the cerebral cortex of the lizard Podarcis hispanica.
2004
The mechanism of serotoninergic transmission in the neo- and archicortex of mammals kis complex, including both synaptic and nonsynaptic components, direct actions on principal cells, and indirect effects mediated by GABAergic interneurons. Here we studied the termination pattern and synaptic organization of the serotoninergic afferents in the cerebral cortex of the lizard, Podarcis hispanica, which is considered to correspond in part to the mammalian hippocampal formation, with the aim of unraveling basic, phylogenetically preserved rules in the connectivity of this pathway. We demonstrate that serotoninergic afferents, visualized by immunostaining for serotonin itself, establish multiple …
Human umbilical cord expresses several vasoactive peptides involved in the local regulation of vascular tone: protein and gene expression of Orphanin…
2011
Full-term human umbilical cord contains three blood vessels: two arteries coiled around a vein and surrounded by Wharton’s jelly, a mucous tissue with few mesenchymal stromal cells and abundant extracellular matrix. Umbilical vessels lack innervations, thus endothelial cells must play a role in the control of blood flow. The aim of this study was to investigate in human umbilical cord the expression of five peptides that could be involved in the regulation of vascular tone: Orphanin FQ, Oxytocin, Atrial Natriuretic Peptide (ANP), endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase (eNOS) and inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase (iNOS). The expression of these molecules in full-term human umbilical cord …
Immunohistochemical and Biomolecular Identification of Orphanin FQ, eNOS, Atrial natriuretic Factor and Oxytocin in Rat Seminal Vesicles
2009
In previous studies performed on rodents, we detected the presence of adreno-cholinergic and peptidergic innervation in seminal vesicles and other organs of the male genital system, such as prostate and ductus deferens, in which we also investigated the expression of NOS and NADPH-diaphorase. During the present project we focused our attention on the expression of some peptides involved in local control of smooth muscle relaxation, contractility, vasodilatation and control of blood flow in rat seminal vesicles. We investigated, through immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR, the presence of four peptides: orphanin, eNOS, ANF and oxytocin. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the presence of the…
Peripheral innervation of the heart
1987
The present immunohistochemical study demonstrates the multiplicity, histotopography and origin of peptidergic innervation in the mammalian heart. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is the major representative of peptides in cardiac sympathetic efferents. Sympathetic afferents are characterized by the presence of tachykinins, calcitonin gene-related peptide and apparently also some opioid peptides. Predominant peptides of the vagal system are tachykinins. The intrinsic peptidergic system predominantly consists of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide/peptide histidine isoleucine. Paracrine systems are merely opioid-ergic. Target relations of extrinsic and intrinsic peptidergic nerves were found to be more di…
Chapter 21 Immunohistochemical evidence for a co-transmitter role of opioid peptides in primary sensory neurons
1988
Publisher Summary The purpose of this chapter is to answer several open questions regarding opioid peptides by using a highly sensitive light microscopic (LM) immunohistochemical approach. The chapter mentions the immunohistochemical evidence for a co-transmitter role of opioid peptides in primary sensory neurons. It introduces the concept that there is a functionally important tandem constellation of transmitters in a specific nociceptive population of primary sensory afferents consisting of (1) an inhibitory transmitter family, the opioid peptides, and (2) an excitatory transmitter family, the tachykinins. Small-diameter primary sensory neurons not only transmit nociceptive messages to ce…