Corticosterone: a critical factor in an opioid form of stress-induced analgesia.
The finding that some opioid-mediated forms of stress-induced analgesia are antagonized by hypophysectomy and dexamethasone has led to the suggestion that beta-endorphin, released from the pituitary, may mediate these analgesic reactions. "Long-term analgesia" (an opioid-mediated form of stress-induced analgesia), which is blocked by dexamethasone and hypophysectomy, was also blocked by adrenalectomy and reinstated with corticosterone therapy. Corticosterone is proposed to play a permissive role in long-term analgesia and to be a critical hormone mediating this phenomenon.
D000315:Adrenalectomy; D000698:Analgesia; D000818:Animals; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000502:physiology*; D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000494:pharmacology; D004723:Endorphins / Q000502:physiology*; D007016:Hypophysectomy; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D051381:Rats; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000503:physiopathology*
D004723:Endorphins; D003907:Dexamethasone; D003345:Corticosterone