[Differences in activity between substance P and substance P-heptapeptide as studied on the phenomenon of "gut dependence" in rats (author's transl)].

Naloxone causes a tonic contraction (= "gut dependence") of the ileum in morphine-dependent rats. This "gut dependence" can be antagonized by morphine (2.5 X 10(-7) g/ml). Substance P-undecapeptide (SP1-11) produces a tonic contraction of the ileum in morphine-independent rats and also in morphine-dependent rats. In the latter, this tonic contraction is comparable with the naloxone-induced contraction. When morphine-dependent rats with naloxone-induced "gut dependence" are given SP1-11, they show an additional increase in tonus followed by a rapid tonus inhibition. Substance P-heptapeptide (SP5-11) also causes a naloxone-like contraction in both the morphine-dependent and the morphine-independent rats. In contrast to SP1-11, SP5-11 produces neither a tonus superposition nor a tonus inhibition in morphine-dependent rats with naloxone-induced "gut dependence". The fact that SP5-11 does not, in contrast to SP1-11, exert these two effects (tonus superposition and subsequent tonus inhibition) is indicative of differences between the mechanisms of the two Substance P sequences.