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Letters to Nature
Nature 220, 1040 - 1042 (07 December 1968); doi:10.1038/2201040a0

Mode of Action of Morphine-like Drugs on Autonomic Neuro-effectors

A. LOUISE COWIE, H. W. KOSTEKLITZ & A. J. WATT

Department of Physiology, University of Aberdeen.

MORPHINE-like drugs depress transmission across certain neuro-effector junctions1–7 ; this effect is more marked at low than at high frequencies of stimulation3,5,6 and is caused by depression of transmitter release3,5–11. Fig. 1 shows the reduction in the release of acetylcholine caused by morphine when the innervated longitudinal muscle strip of the guinea-pig ileum is stimulated transmurally. These observations confirm and extend the findings of Paton and Zar11 that in the presence of morphine the spontaneous output of acetylcholine of the unstimulated preparation is reduced and that the evoked output per volley is low and almost constant at frequencies between 0.1 and 10/s, whereas without morphine the output per volley is usually much higher at low frequencies of stimulation and falls with increasing rates of excitation.

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