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Chronic, but Not Acute Morphine Treatment, Up-regulates α-Ca2+/calmodulin Dependent Protein Kinase II Gene Expression in Rat Brain

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Abstract

The effects of acute and chronic morphine treatments on the expression of Ca2+/calmodulin dependent protein kinase II (CaMK II) gene in rat brain were investigated using in situ hybridization histochemistry. Our data showed that repeated, but not single morphine administration, resulted in significant up-regulation of the α-CaMK II gene expression in hippocampus and frontal cortex. We further studied the time courses of α-CaMK II gene expression in response to repeated morphine administration. After 3 days of consecutive morphine injections, the α-CaMK II mRNA levels exhibited a trend of up-regulation, and after 6 days of consecutive morphine injections it increased over 50–60% as compared with the control group. The α-CaMK II mRNA levels remained high 24 h after the cessation of chronic morphine treatment and returned to the control level 72 h later. However, changes of α-CaMK II gene levels mentioned above were not detected in amygdala or piriform cortex. Taken together, our data demonstrate that chronic morphine treatment region-specific up-regulates the levels of the α-CaMK II gene expression in hippocampus and frontal cortex.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Shiduo Lu, Renhao Xue, Yan Liu, Yuqiu Zhang, Yanqing Wang, and Xiu Gao for their technical help. This work was supported in part by grants from the Ministries of Science and Technology and Education (2003CB515405/2005CB522406/PCSIRT), and Shanghai Municipal Commissions for Science and Technology and Education (06JC14008/SLADP B119).

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  1. Pharmacology Research Center and State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Shanghai Medical College and Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Yuejun Chen, Yan Jiang, Wen Yue, Yuqing Zhou, Lin Lu & Lan Ma

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  1. Yuejun Chen
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  2. Yan Jiang
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  3. Wen Yue
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  4. Yuqing Zhou
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  5. Lin Lu
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Correspondence to Lan Ma.

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Special issue in honor of Dr. Ji-Sheng Han.

Yuejun Chen, Yan Jiang, Wen Yue contributed equally to this work.

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Chen, Y., Jiang, Y., Yue, W. et al. Chronic, but Not Acute Morphine Treatment, Up-regulates α-Ca2+/calmodulin Dependent Protein Kinase II Gene Expression in Rat Brain. Neurochem Res 33, 2092–2098 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-008-9690-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-008-9690-0

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