Oxidative damage and sensitivity to nociceptive stimulus and opioids in aging rats

Oxidative stress contributes to aging and may cause alterations in pain and analgesia. Knowledge about effects of oxidative stress on the opioid system is very limited. This project was designed to determine the relationship between age-related oxidative damage and opioid antinociception. Three age groups of male Fischer 344 rats were tested for pain sensitivity and responses to morphine and fentanyl using the hot plate method. Oxidative stress markers in various brain regions were measured. With advancing age, nociceptive threshold and antinociceptive effects of opioids decreased significantly. There was a significant negative correlation between morphine antinociception and protein oxidation in cortex, striatum, and midbrain (r2 = 0.73, 0.87, and 0.77, respectively), and lipid peroxidation in cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and striatum (r2 = 0.73, 0.61, and 0.71, respectively). Similar correlation was observed between oxidative stress markers and fentanyl antinociception. These findings demonstrate that the age-related increase in oxidative damage in brain is associated with a significant decrease in the antinociceptive effects of opioids.