Nitrous oxide-induced hypothermia in the rat.

Exposure of rats to high levels of nitrous oxide (N2O) in oxygen (O2) reduced body temperature in a concentration-related manner. The hypothermia was partly reversed by pretreatment with naloxone but not naltrexone. But in rats rendered tolerant to morphine by pellet implantation, exposure to 75% N2O/25% O2 evoked a marked hypothermia similar to that observed in morphine-naive animals. In another experiment, the hypothermic effect of chloral hydrate was also sensitive to antagonism by pretreatment with naloxone but not naltrexone. These observations lead us to suspect that N2O-induced hypothermia in rats is possibly not mediated by opiate receptors. The thermotropic activity of N2O may result from some non-opioid action of N2O. Its selective antagonism by naloxone (but not naltrexone) may be due to a unique non-opioid analeptic action of naloxone.