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Injected intrathecally, bradykinin (BK) produced either hyperalgesia (0.15 µg) or antinociception (6.0 µg) in rats when thermal noxious stimuli were used. Similarly, des-Arg⁹-BK at the lower dose (0.15 µg) decreased, whereas at the higher dose (6.0 µg) it increased the threshold to thermal noxious stimuli; however, these effects were less pronounced than those of BK. The antinociception induced by BK was abolished by HOE 140, a B₂ receptor antagonist, injected intrathecally at a dose of 1.3 ng and was markedly attenuated by des-Arg¹⁰-HOE 140, a B₁ receptor antagonist (1.15 ng i.t.). The results obtained in this study showed that – depending on the dose used – BK and des-Arg⁹-BK could produce pro- as well as antinociceptive actions. Both B₂ and B₁ receptors are involved in the action of intrathecally applied BK.

Rats were made tolerant to morphine or to DALA, a synthetic analogue of met-enkephalin, by prolonged exposure to these compounds. Tolerance was assessed by evaluating the resistance of the treated rats to present catalepsy after an acute dose of the opiates. Both morphine and DALA induced tolerance and cross-tolerance to the cataleptic effect. Acute administration of morphine and DALA increased the concentration of DOPAC in striatum, limbic area and s.nigra of control rats. This increase was not present when morphine was given acutely to chronically morphine-treated rats, indicating that these animals were tolerant to this effect. Chronically morphine-treated rats given DALA presented partial tolerance to the biochemical effect of the peptide in limbic area and in s.nigra but not in striatum, indicating that only in certain areas was cross-tolerance produced by chronic morphine. When DALA was administered at different doses to chronically DALA treated rats, the peptide induced rise in DA catabolite was similar to that produced in control animals, so clearly there was no tolerance to this biochemical effect. In these animals cross tolerance to morphine's effect on DA metabolism was present in s.nigra but not in the other two areas, indicating that s.nigra is particularly sensitive to opiate-induced tolerance on DA metabolism.

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