Low concentrations of morphine enhanced the neuroglia-like differentiation.

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of different concentrations of morphine in chronic manner on neuroglial differentiation in PC12 cells.PC12 cells were cultured in RPMI 1640 culture medium including 0.02 % bovine serum albumin together with different concentrations of morphine for 12 days. Cytotoxicity was performed by lactate dehydrogenase assay. Cell death was performed by PI/Hoechst staining assay. Neuroglial differentiation was performed by Nestin, Tuj-1, MAP-2, S-100 and GFAP Immunocytochemistry assay.Data showed that morphine either at low or high concentration activated opioid  receptors, which  resulted in a decrease of cytotoxicity and cell death and induction of Nestin, Tuj-1, MAP-2, Neurofilament-M (NF-M), GFAP and S-100 protein expression as compared in treated cells  with the control (untreated cells) (p<005).It can be concluded that low concentrations of morphine in chronic manner stimulate the neuroglial-like differentiation by activating protein expression and survival-promoting signaling in PC12 cells with opioid receptor-dependent mechanism (Fig. 8, Ref. 36). Text in PDF www.elis.sk.