A study of intracerebroventricular self-administration of leucine or methionine enkephalin by rats in response to intermittent electric shocks.
Rats were taught to self-administer Leu-E (10, 25 and 100 micrograms/microliters) or Met-E (0.5, 10 and 100 micrograms/microliters) through a cannula implanted in the lateral cerebral ventricle (i.c.v.). Their self-injection behaviour was studied before, during and after nociceptive stimulation. In the course of the control period of the experiment, the rats rapidly learned lever pressing for self-injection of enkephalin but they did not increase their self-administration of Leu-E or Met-E during the nociceptive electrical stimulation period. Also studied were the acute effect of i.c.v. enkephalin and morphine on tail-flick latency (sec) and electrical threshold vocalization (mA). The analgesic effect of Leu-E and Met-E was of short duration (less than 2-6 min). The mean rise (i.e., analgesia) of the tail-flick threshold showed a significant difference after i.c.v. Met-E only. The acute i.c.v. effect of 20 or 30 micrograms of morphine induced a long-lasting analgesia, greater than 40 min. These results show that Leu-E and Met-E are not rewarding during a nociceptive stimulus. This may be due to the short and inconstant analgesic action of i.c.v. enkephalins.
D000818:Animals; D004597:Electroshock; D004743:Enkephalin, Leucine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004744:Enkephalin, Methionine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D007276:Injections, Intraventricular; D009619:Nociceptors / Q000187:drug effects*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D012646:Self Administration; D012684:Sensory Thresholds
D004744:Enkephalin, Methionine; D004743:Enkephalin, Leucine