EFFECTS OF IONTOPHORESED OPIOIDS ON PHYSIOLOGICALLY CHARACTERIZED LAMINAE-I AND LAMINAE-II DORSAL HORN NEURONS IN THE CAT SPINAL-CORD

The objective of the present study was to determine in vivo the effects of opioids applied locally via microiontophoresis on physiologically characterized laminae I and II dorsal horn neurons in the cat spinal cord. Experiments were performed on pentobarbital-anesthetized or decerebrate, spinalized cats. The effects of morphine (MOR), [D-Ala2,methyl-Phe4, Gly-ol5]enkephalin (DAGO) and naloxone (NALO) on spontaneous- and D,L-homocystic acid-evoked unit activity were examined for 94 laminae I and II dorsal horn neurons. MOR, DAGO and NALO produced mixed effects (i.e. excitation or inhibition) on unit activity; however, the majority of cells examined (67%) were inhibited. Whether MOR, DAGO or NALO exerted excitatory or inhibitory influences on unit activity did not depend on the modality of the neuron (66% of high threshold units, 56% of multireceptive units and 69% of low threshold units were inhibited; some cells of each modality also were excited). NALO also was found rarely to be neutral; 75% of the cells examined were inhibited and 16% excited by NALO. Since NALO was found to itself have significant effects on laminae I and II dorsal horn unit activity, the ability to use NALO as an opioid antagonist to MOR and DAGO was confounded. © 1990.