Effect of Morphine on Resistance to Infection

Morphine was demonstrated to exacerbate infections. Experiments were performed to evaluate variations of phagocytic physiology during morphine treatment. In mice, morphine drastically reduced reticuloendothelial system activity, phagocyte count, phagocytic index, killing properties, and superoxide a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of infectious diseases 1983-10, Vol.148 (4), p.656-666
Main Authors: Tubaro, Ezio, Borelli, Giorgio, Croce, Carlo, Cavallo, Giovanni, Santiangeli, Claudio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analgesics
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Candidiasis - immunology
Corynebacterium Infections - immunology
Dosage
Host Defense
Immunity, Cellular - drug effects
Infections
Klebsiella Infections - immunology
Klebsiella pneumoniae
Macrophages
Macrophages - drug effects
Macrophages - immunology
Male
Medical sciences
Mice
Mice, Inbred Strains
Morphine
Morphine - immunology
Morphine - toxicity
Naloxone - immunology
Neuropharmacology
Phagocytes
Phagocytes - drug effects
Phagocytes - immunology
Phagocytosis
Phagocytosis - drug effects
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Rabbits
Solvents
Spleen cells
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Summary:Morphine was demonstrated to exacerbate infections. Experiments were performed to evaluate variations of phagocytic physiology during morphine treatment. In mice, morphine drastically reduced reticuloendothelial system activity, phagocyte count, phagocytic index, killing properties, and superoxide anion production in polymorphonuclear leukocytes and macrophages. Similar effects on alveolar macrophage count, phagocytosis, and killing were found in rabbits, a result which suggested a lack of species specificity. Additional experiments demonstrated that morphine (1) induces a reduction of lymphoid organ weight, (2) impairs the ability to eradicate infections and (3) is counteracted in its depressing activity on phagocytic physiology by small amounts of Corynebacterium parvum. The results suggest that there is a close relationship between the fact that morphine exacerbates infections and the fact that morphine depresses phagocytic functions; therefore, the negative effect of morphine on phagocytosis is at least one of the reasons for its negative effect on the development of infections.
ISSN:0022-1899
1537-6613
DOI:10.1093/infdis/148.4.656