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NEUROPHARMACOLOGY
Center for Substance Abuse Research and Department of Pharmacology, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Received April 17, 2003; accepted July 1, 2003.
| Abstract |
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receptor agonists produced hypothermia (Xin et al., 1997
receptor antagonists (Handler et al., 1992
receptor (Xin et al., 1997
opioid receptors are not as clear. Although some studies observed hypothermia after the application of
receptor agonists (Spencer et al., 1988
Nitric oxide (NO), recently recognized as a prominent second messenger (Breder and Saper, 1996
), is produced by the enzyme nitric-oxide synthase (NOS) that utilizes L-arginine to make L-citrulline and the radical gas NO. NOS has been found in peripheral and central neurons (Bredt and Snyder, 1992
). Three different isoforms of NOS have been described (Lopez-Figueroa et al., 1998
). Two are constitutive forms, endothelial and neuronal (Moncada et al., 1991
), and the third is inducible (Lowenstein et al., 1992
). nNOS was first described in the neurons of the central and peripheral nervous systems. eNOS is generally found in the endothelium of blood vessels responsible for vasodilatation. iNOS is located in the cytosol of cells in the immune system, in smooth muscles, and hepatocytes. It was originally described as inducible and is almost undetectable under basal conditions but is induced at the transcriptional level by LPS and cytokines (Xie et al., 1992
).
Within the last few years, a number of studies have been conducted to investigate whether NO plays a role in temperature regulation, fever, and hypothermia. Some authors have suggested that NO has an antipyretic function (Moncada et al., 1991
; Gourine, 1995
), and some have shown that NO is involved in hypothermia (Branco et al., 1997
; Steiner et al., 1998
; Almeida and Branco, 2001
). However, other reports provide evidence that the formation of NO participates in the development of a febrile response (Lin and Lin, 1996
; Scammell et al., 1996
; Roth et al., 1998
; Benamar et al., 2000
). It should be noted that these studies differed in strategies to assess the role of NO, species of experimental animal, pyrogen administered, and route of administration, as well as in inhibitors used.
Although NO has been implicated in the hyperthermia induced by morphine (Benamar et al., 2001
), the NOS isoform involved in the induction of NO remains unknown. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to identify which type of NOS isoform is involved in morphine-induced hyperthermia, using selective inhibitors of the three types of NOS isoforms.
| Materials and Methods |
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Surgery Procedures. Rats were anesthetized with an intraperitoneal injection of a mixture of ketamine hydrochloride (100150 mg/kg) and acepromazine maleate (0.2 mg/kg). An incision 2 cm in length was made along the linea alba, and the underlying tissue was dissected and retracted. A transmitter (Mini-Mitter, Sunriver, OR) was implanted in the intraperitoneal space. After the transmitter was passed through the incision, the abdominal musculature and dermis were sutured independently. The animals were returned to individual cages in an environmental room.
Measurement of Body Temperature. One week after surgery, the rats were tested in an environmental room (21 ± 0.3°C ambient temperature and 52 ± 2% relative humidity). Tb was measured by a biotelemetry system (Mini-Mitter) using calibrated transmitters implanted i.p. Signals from the transmitter were delivered through a computer-linked receiver. This method minimizes stress to animals during the Tb reading. Thus, the Tb could be monitored continuously and recorded without restraint or any disturbance to the animal.
Drugs. Morphine sulfate (National Institute on Drug Abuse) was dissolved in sterile pyrogen-free saline. AG was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St Louis, MO) and was dissolved in saline. L-NIO and 7-NI were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich and dissolved in DMSO.
Statistical Analysis. All results were expressed as mean ± S.E.M. Statistical analysis of differences between groups was determined by analysis of variance followed by Tukey's post hoc test. A value of P less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
| Results |
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Effect of Intraperitoneal Injection of 7-NI on Morphine-Induced Hyperthermia. 7-NI injected 30 min before morphine blocked the morphine-induced hyperthermia (Fig. 2). The effect of 7-NI was dose-dependent. Doses of 5 or 10 significantly suppressed the morphine-induced hyperthermia (Fig. 2, P < 0.05). Mean Tb before injection was 37.79 ± 0.05 for the saline/morphine group, 37.66 ± 0.17 for the 7-NI (20 mg/kg)/morphine group, 37.60 ± 0.17 for the 7-NI (10 mg/kg)/morphine group, and 37.87 ± 0.23 for the 7-NI (5 mg/kg)/morphine group.
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Effect of Intraperitoneal Injection of AG on Morphine-Induced Hyperthermia. Pretreatment with AG (20 mg/kg) failed to alter the hyperthermic response during the 180-min recording period (Fig. 3, P > 0.05). No significant change in Tb was observed after AG injection compared with the effect of an injection of an equivalent volume of vehicle (saline) (Fig. 3, P > 0.05). Mean Tb before injection was 37.42 ± 0.14 for the saline/morphine group, 37.49 ± 0.12 for the AG/morphine group, and 37.44 ± 0.15 for the AG group.
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Effect of Intraperitoneal Injection of L-NIO on Hyperthermia Induced by Morphine. To determine whether eNOS mediated the morphine hyperthermia, L-NIO was injected i.p. 30 min before morphine. L-NIO (10 mg/kg) did not alter the morphine hyperthermia (Fig. 4, P > 0.05). Injection of L-NIO alone did not affect Tb (Fig. 4, P > 0.05). Mean Tb before injection was 37.82 ± 0.10 for the saline/morphine group, 37.77 ± 0.12 for the L-NIO/morphine group, and 37.88 ± 0.14 for the L-NIO group.
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| Discussion |
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, and
, are widely distributed in the central nervous system. Dense NOS staining occurs in the hypothalamus (Bredt and Snyder, 1992
Morphine is routinely used for pain management in the critically ill; thus, it is of clinical relevance to determine the role of NO as a mediator of the physiological and pathological process in the temperature responses induced by morphine. Recently we have demonstrated that L-NAME blocks the hyperthermia induced by morphine (Benamar et al., 2001
). However, L-NAME produces an increase in blood pressure. In the present study we could prevent the morphine-induced hyperthermia by using 7-NI, which did not increase blood pressure (MacKenzie et al., 1994
).
To investigate the role of iNOS in hyperthermia induced by morphine, we used AG. Pretreatment with a dose of AG (50 mg/kg) that did not affect the Tb did not alter the hyperthermia induced by morphine. Interestingly, a similar effect of AG (50 mg/kg) has been found in restraint stress-induced fever in rats (Sanches et al., 2002
) and in LPS-induced fever in pigs (Roth et al., 1999
). Also, it has been demonstrated that iNOS could neither be detected by immunofluorescence staining nor on Western blots in preparations from rats treated with a pyrogenic dose of LPS (Gath et al., 1999
). Moreover, a very small population of iNOS-positive microglial cells appeared several hours after administration of LPS in rats (VanDam et al., 1995
), and no significant elevation of NO activity is detected in brain a short time after LPS administration (Sehic et al., 1997
). The iNOS is almost undetectable under basal conditions but is induced at the transcriptional level by LPS and cytokines (Xie et al., 1992
) until the enzyme is synthesized. This is a process that requires several hours (Mustafa and Olson, 1998
). The administration of morphine induced an increase in Tb starting 10 to 20 min after injection, before iNOS was produced. That AG failed to alter the hyperthermia induced by morphine seems reasonable. However, some authors have shown that iNOS is detected in hypothalamic cells (Miñano et al., 1997
) after LPS administration, and intra-OVLT (organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis) injection of AG inhibited the fever induced by LPS (Lin and Lin, 1996
). It should be noted that these studies varied in conditions used to assess the role of NO.
The implication of eNOS as the source of NO whose production was stimulated by LPS has been reported recently (Yang and Krukoff, 2000
). Also, glial gene expression of eNOS was shown to increase in response to viral infection (Barna et al., 1996
) suggesting that, under special circumstances, glia can be induced to produce greater amounts of eNOS. In this study, the possible participation of eNOS has been investigated by using L-NIO, an inhibitor that acts predominantly on eNOS but also has effects on nNOS. Neither 10 nor 20 mg/kg of L-NIO by itself altered Tb. The pretreatment with L-NIO did not affect morphine-induced hyperthermia, suggesting that eNOS does not play a role in mediating the hyperthermic response to morphine.
In conclusion, the present studies have demonstrated that morphine injected at a dose of 15 mg/kg i.p. in rats produced hyperthermia, and the effect could be blocked by an nNOS inhibitor but not by an iNOS or nNOS inhibitor, underscoring the differing roles of NOS isoforms in the hyperthermic processes. This finding indicates clearly that NO produced by nNOS mediates morphine-induced hyperthermia. However, eNOS and iNOS seem not to be involved in the morphine-induced hyperthermia.
| Footnotes |
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ABBREVIATIONS:Abbreviation: Tb, body temperature; NO, nitric oxide; NOS, NO synthase; nNOS, neuronal NOS; eNOS, endothelial NOS; iNOS, inducible NOS; 7-NI, 7-nitroindazole; L-NIO, N(5)-(-iminoethyl)-L-ornithine; AG, aminoguanidine; L-NAME, N
-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester; LPS, lipopolysaccharide; DMSO, dimethyl sulfoxide.
Address correspondence to: Dr. Khalid Benamar, Department of Pharmacology, Temple University School of Medicine, 3420 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19140. E-mail address: kabenamar{at}hotmail.com
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