Influence of the ditribution and the structure of opioid receptor on species difference in opioid effect between dogs and cats

• Project/Area Number: 25850206
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Veterinary medical science
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: KAMATA Masatoshi 東京大学, 農学生命科学研究科, 特任助教 (50646411)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2014)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,770,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥870,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000); Fiscal Year 2013: ¥2,340,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥540,000)
• Keywords: オピオイド受容体 / 中枢神経 / mRNA発現量 / 分布 / 種差 / 脳 / 脊髄 / 動物種差 / mRNA / 発現量 / 免疫組織化学染色

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We investigated the distribution pattern and mRNA expression level of opioid receptor (μ and κ) in the central nervous system in dogs and cats to study the mechanism that causes the species difference in opioid effects between dogs and cats.
We found that the distribution pattern of opioid receptor (μ and κ) in the central nervous system is not deifferant between dogs and cats. But relative mRNA expression level of opioid receptor (μ and κ) is much different in some areas such as thalamus, periaqueductal gray matter (PAG) and dorsal root ganglion (DRG). Since PAG and DRG play very importamt roles in pain percerption and analgesia, the difference in mRNA expression level of opioid receptor in these area may have a relation to the species difference of opioid effects between dogs and cats.