Chronic morphine drinking establishes morphine tolerance, but not addiction in Wistar rats.
OBJECTIVE
Some animal models apply morphine in the drinking water to generate addiction, but related reports are not free of conflicting results. Accordingly, this study aimed to figure out if chronic consumption of morphine in the drinking water can induce morphine addiction in Wistar rats.


METHODS
For 3 weeks, the animals received a daily morphine dose of 35 mg/kg by offering a calculated volume of sugar water (5% sucrose) with morphine (0.1 mg/ml) to each rat; animals receiving just sugar water served as controls. Immediately after the treatment phase, the tail immersion test was used to check for morphine tolerance, and all animals were then kept on tap water for one week (withdrawal phase). Afterwards, all rats were allowed to choose their drinking source by offering two bottles, containing sugar water without and with morphine, simultaneously for two days (preference phase).


RESULTS
While the chronic consumption of morphine led to a reduction in body weight and to morphine tolerance, the morphine-treated Wistar rats did not show any preference for the opiate-containing sugar water.


CONCLUSIONS
Body weight loss and tolerance do not reveal a condition of drug craving, and current animal models should be re-evaluated regarding their potential to establish morphine addicted animals.
Binsack
Ralf
R
Department of Toxicology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310006, China.
Zheng
Ming-lan
ML
Zhang
Zhan-sai
ZS
Yang
Liu
L
Zhu
Yong-ping
YP
D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000187:drug effects; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004361:Drug Tolerance; D008297:Male; D009020:Morphine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D009021:Morphine Dependence; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013997:Time Factors
D009020:Morphine