Effects of enkephalin and morphine on rat globus pallidus neurons

This study was conducted in order to compare the effects of microiontophoretically-applied morphine and met-enkephalin (met-ENK) on spontaneous and/or glutamate-evoked activity of single globus pallidus (GP) neurons in locally anesthetized, paralyzed rats. The predominant effect of both morphine and met-ENK was a depression of pallidal neuronal activity. While very few GP neurons were excited by morphine (2/89), a small population of neurons was excited by met-ENK (16/89). Both the inhibitory and excitatory responses produced by morphine and met-ENK could be attenuated by the microiontophoretic application of naloxone. It was also found that morphine and met-ENK did not affect all GP neurons in a similar manner. When applied to the same neurons, morphine elicited depression in 11 of 16 GP neurons which were excited by the application of met-ENK. In contrast, neither of two GP neurons excited by morphine in this study displayed inhibition upon application of met-ENK. Thus the microiontophoresis of morphine and met-ENK to single GP neurons has demonstrated that these two substances can produce opposite effects when applied to the same neurons and suggests that two functionally distinct types of opiate receptor may exist within rat GP, one which mediates the inhibitory effects of morphine and met-ENK, possibly the classical mu (mu) receptor, and one that is preferentially selective to met-ENK and which mediates the excitatory effects of opiates within this region, possibly the classical delta (delta) receptor.