Article
Prenatal exposure to morphine alters analgesic responses and preference for sweet solutions in adult rats

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Abstract

In the present study, we examined long-terra effects of prenatal morphine on pain response and on preference for sweet solutions. Pregnant Fischer 344 rats were given increasing doses of morphine (0.75–12.0 mg/day) in slow-release emulsion, during gestational days 12–18. Control rats were injected with vehicle and were either pair-fed to morphine rats, or ad libitum fed. At birth, all litters were culled to 8–10 pups (half males and half females) and cross-fostered to naive, surrogate dams. Testing began when rats were 10–12 week old. Rats prenatally exposed to morphine exhibited higher analgesia in response to a morphine challenge, and a greater preference for saccharin solution as compared with both control groups. These findings indicate that prenatal morphine induces long-lasting alterations of systems involved in reward processes and in opiate analgesia, perhaps by modulating endogenous opiate systems.

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