[ effect of beforehand and simultaneous oral contraceptive administration on urine total and free morphine concentration in tolerance and dependency models of rat]

Background: Addiction to opioid drugs is considered as a problem throughout the world. Addiction can be studied concerning: social, medical and psychological aspects. The social aspect of addiction is quite important. For example, the negative result of addiction test is a requirement for marriage and job by law. On the other hand, frauds in addiction tests have been reported [such as displacement of urine from bladder, alkalization or acidification of urine and taking of diuretics or oral contraceptives]

Materials and Methods: In the present study, two different chronic morphine administration protocols [tolerance and dependency models] were applied. Estrogen and progesterone were given prior and simultaneously with morphine. After the last injection of morphine, urine samples were taken every 6 h for 24 h. Then morphine was quantitatively detected by High Performance Liquid Chromatography [HPLC]. Data analysis was performed using two-way ANOVA and repeated measures ANOVA test followed by Student-Newman-Keuls test. Conjugated morphine was measured by the subtraction of free part of morphine from the total one in the urine samples

Results: Our results indicated that prior administration of estrogen and progesterone increased the metabolism of morphine 6 and 12 h after the last injection, while no significant change was detected after 18 and 24 h

Conclusion: In summary, it can be concluded that estrogen and progesterone transiently affect the metabolism of morphine. Thus, the effect of the sex hormones on morphine metabolism is not clinically important

Comparison of urinary neopterin to creatinin ratio in multiple sclerosis patients and controlled group

Multiple Sclerosis as the most common cause of demyelinating disorders has a basis of autoimmunity. To describe a procedure to determine total and aromatic UNCR and their ratio as a marker of cell mediated immunity in MS patients and controlled groups. In this project UNCR was determined and compared in MS patients who reffered to the neurology department of Shariati's Hospital and normal subjects. Using HPLC and Novapak C18 [3.9x300mm] column at 25 degrees centigrade. Mean of aromatic UNCR were 337.6 +/- 47.2 and 1273.1 +/- 201.64 micromol/mol, mean of total UNCR were 484.64 +/- 60.2 and 1800.3 +/- 250.1 micromol/mol, and the ratio of aromatic/total UNCR were 0.664 and 0.73 in normal subjects and MS patients respectively. Prominent elevation of aromatic UNCR in MS patients in comparison with normal subjects is the sign of high activity of cell- mediated immunity in this group even though with treatment