SINGLE NEURONAL ACTIVATION BY MULTIPLE OPIATE SUBSTRATES

本建议的长期目标是帮助澄清 鸦片类镇痛剂如何止痛的问题。有几个基因座在 阿片受体所在的大脑以及电和/或 化学(鸦片)激活产生止痛。这些结构将 使多条路径的路径疼痛。全身注射鸦片类药物 必须以复杂的动态方式激活这些底物中的许多。这个 提出的方法是检查单一激活和联合激活的影响 大鼠中脑中脑导水管周围灰质(PAG) 和旁巨细胞网状核(PGC) 中缝大核和三叉神经内单个神经元的反应 尾侧核(TNC)甲硫氨酸脑啡肽将被微管注入PAG 和PGC单独和一起，将决定是否(和 如果是，这两种阿片底物如何影响NRM中的同一细胞， 一种鸦片底物本身；在TNC中，疼痛通路的起源。 还将对吗啡对PGC的影响进行剂量-反应研究。 在时间允许的情况下，损毁PGC对吗啡诱发的PAG修饰的影响 NRM和TNC单位的活动情况也将得到调查。

The long term objective of the present proposal is to help clarify the question of how opiate analgesics relieve pain. There are several loci in brain where opiate receptors are located and where electrical and/or chemical (opiate) activation produces analgesia. These structures connect to pain pathways along multiple routes. A systemic injection of opiates must activate many of these substrates in a complex dynamic manner. The approach proposed is to examine effects of single and conjoint activation of two opiate substrates in rat, the midbrain periacqueductal gray (PAG) and the nucleus reticularis paragigantocellularis (PGC), on recorded responses of single neurons in nucleus raphe magnus (NRM) and in trigeminal nucleus caudalis (TNC). Met-Enkephalin will be microcannulated into PAG and PGC singly and together and it will be determined whether or not (and if so, how) these two opiate substrates can influence the same cell in NRM, an opiate substrate itself; and in TNC, the origin of a pain pathway. Dose-response studies of the effects of morphine in PGC will also be done. Time permitting, effects of PGC lesions on PAG morphine-evoked modification of NRM and TNC unit activity will also be investigated.