Elsevier

Brain Research

Volume 425, Issue 1, 3 November 1987, Pages 49-56
Brain Research

Stress-induced opioid analgesia and activity in deer mice: sex and population differences

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(87)90482-3Get rights and content

Abstract

We compared restraint stress-induced opioid, analgesic and locomotory responses of 4 different populations of male and female deer mice,Peromyscus maniculatus artemisiae andP.m. nebrascensis from mainlands, andP.m. angustus andP.m. triangularis from small islands. All of the deer mice displayed immobilization-induced analgesia which was blocked by the prototypical μ-opiate antagonist, naloxone (1.0 mg/kg). In all of the populations males displayed significantly greater levels of analgesia than females. In addition, the levels of opioid-induced analgesia were significantly greater in the insular than in the mainland male and female deer mice. Restraint also induced significant increases in the locomotor activity of the mainland deer mice, while significantly decreasing the activity of the insular animals. Males displayed significantly greater stress-induced changes in locomotor activity than did females. The stress-induced increases in activity were blocked by the δ-opiate antagonist, ICI 154, 129 (10 mg/kg), while the decreases in activity were inhibited by naloxone. These results demonstrate that there are marked sex and population differences in the stress-induced, opioid-mediated responses of deer mice. These ‘pharmaco-ecological’ findings also suggest that the island-mainland population differences in behavioral responses and ecological characteristics may, in part, be related to differences in the activity of μ-, δ- and possibly other opioid systems.

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