Effects of paclitaxel on mechanical sensitivity and morphine reward in male and female C57Bl6 mice.

This study evaluated the hypothesis that a paclitaxel treatment regimen sufficient to produce mechanical allodynia would alter sensitivities of male and female mice to the conditioned rewarding and reinforcing effects of morphine. Saline or paclitaxel were administered on Days 1, 3, 5, and 7 in male and female C57Bl/6 mice to induce morphine-reversible mechanical allodynia as measured by the Von Frey filament test. Paclitaxel treatment did not change sensitivity to morphine conditioned place preference (CPP) relative to saline treatment in either male or female mice. Morphine produced peak self-administration under a fixed ratio-1 (FR1) schedule of reinforcement for 0.03 mg/kg morphine per infusion in female mice and 0.1 mg/kg morphine per infusion in male mice. During the progressive ratio experiments, saline treatment in male mice decreased the number of morphine infusions for 12 days whereas the paclitaxel-treated male mice maintained responding for morphine similar to baseline levels during the same time period. However, paclitaxel did not have an overall effect on the reinforcing efficacy of morphine assessed over a limited dose range during the course of the repeated self-administration. These results suggest that the reward-related behavioral effects of morphine are overall not robustly altered by the presence of paclitaxel treatment under the current dosing regimen, with the exception of maintaining a small yet significant higher baseline than saline treatment during the development of allodynia in male mice. (PsycINFO Database Record