Journal of Comprehensible Results

Buprenorphine is a opioid that is prescribed to pregnant opioid addicts to manage withdrawal. Currently the affects of buprenorphine on brain development are not well understood. Oligodendrocytes, the myelinating cells of the central nervous system, express opioid receptors throughout their development, so in-utero exposure to buprenorphine could affect myelination in offspring. To test this hypothesis, pregnant rats were implanted with minipumps to deliver 0.3 or 1 mg/kg/day of buprenorphine. Then the pups of the pregnant rats were examined at 12, 19 and 26 days of age. Overall, the 0.3 mg/kg/day treatment group showed a significant increase in myelin basic proteins; whereas, the higher dosage treatment group showed a decrease in myelin basic proteins. Also when the corupus collasum of 26-day old pups were examined, it showed that while the diameter of myelinated axons increased, the myelin sheath became thinner. Another protein of interest was Myelin associated glycoprotein (MAG) because it may play a role in axon-glial interactions. MAG may also contribute to myelination through activating the tyrosine kinase Fyn. The levels of MAG fluctuated similarly to how the myelin basic proteins did. All of this indicates that opioid signaling is involved in the regulation of myelination and the need to continue studying how perinatal exposure to buprenorphine alters brain development.

Figure 2: Summary of Results Summary table of all results from the article. Arrows indicate whether there was an increase or decrease in a molecule compared to the control; NS stands for not significant.Certain results where circled in red to help show the differences between the 0.3 mg/kg/day and the 1 mg/kg/day treatment group.

Adapted from "Opioid Addiction and Pregnancy:Perinatal Exposure to Buprenorphine Affects Myelination in the Developing Brain." by Sanchez E, Bigbee J, Fobbs W, Robinson S, Sato-Bigbee C, 2008, GLIA, 56, p. 1025. Copyright 2008 by Wiley-Liss, Inc.