Opioid and Opiate Immunoregulatory Processes.

The discovery of the ability of the nervous system to communicate through "public" circuits with other systems of the body is attributed to Ernst and Berta Scharrer, who described the neurosecretory process in 1928. Indeed, the immune system has been identified as another important neuroendocrine target tissue. Opioid peptides are involved in this communication (i.

Morphine stimulates iNOS expression via a rebound from inhibition in human macrophages: nitric oxide involvement.

We have previously demonstrated that exposure of human macrophages to morphine results in transient inhibition of cell migratory behavior and adoption of an inactive conformation followed by a return from inhibition resulting in a significant increase in migration velocity and number of activated cells. In the current report, we demonstrate that the return to activation is nitric oxide dependent and inhibited by prior exposure to the opiate antagonist, naloxone. Exposure of macrophages to morphine for 6 hours resulted in a marked inhibition of cell activity and shift of the cell confirmation from amoeboid to round.

Cyclic nitric oxide release by human granulocytes, and invertebrate ganglia and immunocytes: nano-technological enhancement of amperometric nitric oxide determination.

Background: Various tissues from vertebrates and invertebrates respond to external signal molecules by rapid release of nitric oxide (NO) mediated by constitutive nitric oxide synthase.

Material/methods: Invertebrate immunocytes were collected from maintained stock and human granulocytes were isolated from leukocyte-enriched blood obtained from the Long Island Blood Services. The invertebrate ganglionic tissue was either extracted or exposed for ex vivo and in vivo evaluation.

Direct assessment and diminished production of morphine stimulated NO by diabetic endothelium from saphenous vein.

Aim: To directly measure in real time basal and stimulated levels of NO released from human saphenous vein endothelium and to quantify the expression of the mu opiate receptor, which has been linked with NO release.

Methods: Saphenous vein segments from patients with type 2 diabetes (n=12) and patients without diabetes (n=8) were obtained. The release of NO was measured directly from the endothelium using a NO-specific amperometric probe.

Ischemic preconditioning - an opiate constitutive nitric oxide molecular hypothesis.

Coronary artery disease is the number one cause of adult mortality due to a medical illness in the United States. Exciting new studies are looking at the role transient ischemia may play in preconditioning the myocardium to reduce the degree of infarction following a sustained ischemic insult. In this speculative review, we surmise ischemic preconditioning and the resulting protection afforded by it in response to abnormal insults arises from an already existing physiological process that may be associated with exercise.