Treatment Of Pregnant Opioid Addicts With Buprenorphine: Effects On Nervous System Development

EMILSE S. SANCHEZ; SUSAN E. ROBINSON; JOHN W. BIGBEE; CARMEN SATO-BIGBEE

Simposio; Daniel T Watts Research Poster Symposium; 2006

The opioid analogue buprenorphine is used for the management of pregnant opioidaddicts but this treatment has been associated with behavioral and neurological defects in their children. The mechanisms responsible for these effects are poorly understood but it is possible that buprenorphine may interact with endogenous opioid systems affecting crucial. steps along nervous system development. To investigate the effect of buprenorphine on central nervous system (CNS) myelination, rat pups were pre- and postnatally exposed to water (controls) or buprenorphine at concentrations used in humans. Levels of myelin basic protein splicing isoforms and the expression and glycosylation pattern of the myelin-associated glycoprotein MAG indicated that buprenorphine alters the developmental timing ofCNS myelination. Electron-microscopic analysis of 12-day-old spinal cord sections revealed that pups exposed to buprenorphine exhibit a different proportion of myelinated and non-myelinated axons, correlating with the differences observed at the level of myelin protein expression. These results show for the first time that opioid signaling plays an important role in regulating myelination in vivo and underscore the importance of further studies investigating the link between neurological problems and opioid-related mechanisms in the children born from addicted mothers.