The effect of postnatal morphine exposure on spinal processing of sensory inputs
Neonates and children differ from adults in pain processing, particularly in descending pain pathways, which mature from facilitatory to inhibitory during a critical period in postnatal development. Opioid exposure has been shown to accelerate this maturation process. Therefore, this study aims to f...
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| Format: | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| Language: | English |
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2025
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/81080/ |
| _version_ | 1848801292746489856 |
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| author | Platten, Amy |
| author_facet | Platten, Amy |
| author_sort | Platten, Amy |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Neonates and children differ from adults in pain processing, particularly in descending pain pathways, which mature from facilitatory to inhibitory during a critical period in postnatal development. Opioid exposure has been shown to accelerate this maturation process. Therefore, this study aims to further understand the effect of postnatal morphine exposure using immunohistochemistry to analyse markers in rat spinal cord dorsal horns. We examined primary afferent termination patterns, mu opioid receptor (MOR) expression, markers parvalbumin (PV), and protein kinase C gamma (PKCγ), and explored potential sex-specific interactions. We hypothesised that, following morphine exposure there would be an increase in PV and MOR intensity, but no significant changes in primary afferent termination. Our findings showed a significant elevation of IB4 intensity in male rats following morphine exposure, but no significant differences in MOR intensity. Morphine exposure revealed an increased neuronal cell count in PV labelling area for females, and an increased PKCγ total intensity in male rats. Overall, this study demonstrates that exposure to opioids during critical periods of postnatal development can influence nociceptive markers later in life, with sex differences, highlighting the importance in the inclusion of both sexes in pain and opioid research |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T21:05:08Z |
| format | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| id | nottingham-81080 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T21:05:08Z |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-810802025-08-08T04:40:03Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/81080/ The effect of postnatal morphine exposure on spinal processing of sensory inputs Platten, Amy Neonates and children differ from adults in pain processing, particularly in descending pain pathways, which mature from facilitatory to inhibitory during a critical period in postnatal development. Opioid exposure has been shown to accelerate this maturation process. Therefore, this study aims to further understand the effect of postnatal morphine exposure using immunohistochemistry to analyse markers in rat spinal cord dorsal horns. We examined primary afferent termination patterns, mu opioid receptor (MOR) expression, markers parvalbumin (PV), and protein kinase C gamma (PKCγ), and explored potential sex-specific interactions. We hypothesised that, following morphine exposure there would be an increase in PV and MOR intensity, but no significant changes in primary afferent termination. Our findings showed a significant elevation of IB4 intensity in male rats following morphine exposure, but no significant differences in MOR intensity. Morphine exposure revealed an increased neuronal cell count in PV labelling area for females, and an increased PKCγ total intensity in male rats. Overall, this study demonstrates that exposure to opioids during critical periods of postnatal development can influence nociceptive markers later in life, with sex differences, highlighting the importance in the inclusion of both sexes in pain and opioid research 2025-07-24 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/81080/1/Amy%20Platten-20161058-corrections.pdf Platten, Amy (2025) The effect of postnatal morphine exposure on spinal processing of sensory inputs. MRes thesis, University of Nottingham. postnatal morphine exposure immunohistochemistry mu opioid receptor (MOR) |
| spellingShingle | postnatal morphine exposure immunohistochemistry mu opioid receptor (MOR) Platten, Amy The effect of postnatal morphine exposure on spinal processing of sensory inputs |
| title | The effect of postnatal morphine exposure on spinal processing of sensory inputs |
| title_full | The effect of postnatal morphine exposure on spinal processing of sensory inputs |
| title_fullStr | The effect of postnatal morphine exposure on spinal processing of sensory inputs |
| title_full_unstemmed | The effect of postnatal morphine exposure on spinal processing of sensory inputs |
| title_short | The effect of postnatal morphine exposure on spinal processing of sensory inputs |
| title_sort | effect of postnatal morphine exposure on spinal processing of sensory inputs |
| topic | postnatal morphine exposure immunohistochemistry mu opioid receptor (MOR) |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/81080/ |