Caerulein and morphine: an attempt to differentiate their antinociceptive effects.

The antinociceptive effect in mice (hot-plate test) of caerulein (0.15 mg/kg s.c.) was many times more resistant to naloxone than that of morphine (2 mg/kg s.c., equipotent with the caerulein dose). The ED50 (mg/kg s.c.) of naloxone (given simultaneously with an agonist) was with morphine 0.01 and with caerulein 0.07. When administered intravenously after the agonist, the ED50 (mg/kg i.v.) against morphine was 0.012 and that against caerulein was 0.62. In either type of experiment the dose-response lines of naloxone against caerulein were very shallow as compared with those against morphine. A caerulein dose of 5 micrograms/kg enhanced the antinociceptive effect of morphine only when given before morphine, but not when given after it. The limited additivity of the effects together with the different susceptibility to naloxone of the antinociceptive actions indirectly suggest that caerulein and morphine do not share the same mechanism of action. Palpebral ptosis occurred only after caerulein and was completely resistant to naloxone 8 mg/kg s.c.