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Immunosuppressive Effects of Morphine on Immune Responses in Mice

  • Chapter
Drugs of Abuse, Immunity, and AIDS

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 335))

Abstract

The establishment of a firm connection between the immune and neural systems has led to considerable interest in the mediators of the interactions (1–4). In particular, endogenous opioids have been shown to have significant immunomodulatory effects (5–8). There is evidence that immune cells have opioid receptors (9–12) and can secrete opioids and other hormones that are part of the hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal axis (12–15). The studies presented in this paper focus on the immunomodulatory activities of the exogenous opioid, morphine. Although endogenous opioids have been reported to be both immunostimulatory and immunosuppressive (3, 12, 16–23), morphine tends to be only immunosuppressive. Morphine addicts are reported to have decreased numbers of T cells that can rosette with sheep red blood cells (24) and decreased mitogen responses (25). Morphine given in vivo has been shown to sensitize mice to bacterial, fungal, and protozoal infection (26, 27), to inhibit antibody formation to tetanus toxoid (28), to inhibit mitogen responses of spleen cells in vitro (29), and to suppress macrophage colony formation (30). In rats, morphine injected into the lateral ventricle or the periaqueductal gray matter in the brain decreased natural killer cell activity in the spleen (31, 32). Further, morphine decreased delayed-type hypersensitivity responses in rats (33).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, 19140, USA

    Toby K. Eisenstein, Jeanine L. Bussiere & Thomas J. Rogers

  2. Department of Pharmacology, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, 19140, USA

    Jeanine L. Bussiere & Martin W. Adler

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  1. Toby K. Eisenstein
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  2. Jeanine L. Bussiere
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  3. Thomas J. Rogers
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  4. Martin W. Adler
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA

    Herman Friedman , Thomas W. Klein  & Steven Specter ,  & 

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Eisenstein, T.K., Bussiere, J.L., Rogers, T.J., Adler, M.W. (1993). Immunosuppressive Effects of Morphine on Immune Responses in Mice. In: Friedman, H., Klein, T.W., Specter, S. (eds) Drugs of Abuse, Immunity, and AIDS. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 335. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2980-4_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2980-4_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6297-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-2980-4

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