The effect of food and water deprivation on post-stress analgesia in mice and levels of beta-endorphin and dynorphin in blood plasma and hypothalamus

Abstract

Pain sensitivity of food and/or water-deprived male mice was tested on a hotplate. The most pronounced analgesia ensued in animals given no food and water, and no food but water ad libitum, the least one in water-deprived mice. The magnitude of the rise in pain threshold depended on the duration of deprivation and was correlated with the increase in the blood plasma beta-endorphin level. In the hypothalamus beta-endorphin level increased after 72-h food deprivation only. The level of dynorphin remainded unchanged. Naloxone (10 mg/kg) almost completely reversed food or water-deprivation induced analgesia.