Nociception, antinociceptive potency of morphine in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats

There are controversial reports on the effect of diabetes on the pain threshold. We used male Wistar rats to see the effect of streptozotocin induced diabetes on the tail flick, vocalisation and vocalisation after discharge responses. These represent the spinal, lower brain stem and hypothalamic responses respectively. The effect of morphine in these parameters was studied for both the control and diabetic group. In diabetic rats, the pain threshold was increased. However, this increase was not significant. Morphine produced significant analgesia after thirty minutes for tail flick and vocalisation responses and after fifteen minutes for after discharge in the control group. The antinociceptive effect of morphine was delayed and reduced for all three pain threshold confirming the antagonistic action of glucose on opiate receptors.