The effect of interference of morphine and immobility stress on performance of pituitary–adrenal axis in mature male rats

Introduction: Morphine as an alkaloid from the poppy plant (papaver somniferum) is extracted and used by millions of people around the world and also types of stresses threated such as immobility stress the health of many people. The aim of this study was to investigate the interference of morphine and immobility stress on plasma levels of hormones of ACTH and corticosterone in mature male rats.
Methods: In this empirical study, 70 mature male Wistar rats were enrolled as the control, sham and experiment groups, randomly. 3 experimental groups of different types received doses of 10, 20 and 30 mg/kgBW morphine, and 2 experimental group, one received for 2 hours immobility stress and other for 2 hours immobility stress and other plus morphine with doses of 30 mg/kgBW and the sham group received 1cc of saline intraperitoneally for 5 days. 24 hours after the last injection, mice were bled from the heart and hormones of ACTH and corticosterone levels were measured. The data were evaluated using ANOVA and Tuky test. Results: The results showed that the maximum dose of morphine and immobility stress increases plasma levels of ACTH and corticosterone hormones (P<0.001) and simultaneous administration of morphine and immobilization stress enhances the effect of each alone.
Conclusion: Morphine and immobility stress intensify their effect on hormones of ACTH and corticosterone. Therefore, further investigation can discover on the role of stress and morphine on disease incidence and disease prevention, in particular psychosomatic in human specimens.