Logo: to the web site of Uppsala University

Background: Morphine is a potent agonist of the µ-receptor, and it is a type of opioids which is widely used to reduce the pain in patients with cancer and other diseases in order to improve their quality of life. Many “in vitro” studies are made on how morphine affects cell viability and whether the viability of the cells is affected positively or negatively by morphine. The results are contradictory, some studies have shown that morphine protects SH-SY5Y cells against negative secreted proteins such as Dickkopf-1 (DKK1) and 6-hydroxydopamine that induce apoptosis and cell damage, while other studies have shown that viability of HSC-3 cells and SH-SY5Y cells was decreased when they were exposed to morphine. The aim of this study was to establish the effect of morphine on cell viability of SH-SY5Y cell line which is derived from SK-N-SH cell line. SH-SY5Y cells are used widely in neuronal cell models because they can be converted to various types of mature neurons by adding specific reagents to the cells.

Method: Differentiated SH-SY5Y cells were seeded on 96-well cell culture plates and treated with different concentrations of morphine (0,001µM – 1000µM) for 24 hours and MTT assay was used for assessing cell viability. Differentiated SH-SY5Y cells were also exposed to the same concentrations of morphine (0,001µM – 1000µM) for 72 hours. The cells were treated with the same dose of morphine every 24 hours repeatedly for 3 days. MTT assay, LDH assay and Calcein-AM assay were performed for assessing cell viability. 

Result: Morphine showed no effect on SH-SY5Y cells after 24 hours of treatment, but all three assays used in this study showed that the viability of SH-SY5Y cells was reduced when they were exposed to the same dose of morphine every 24 hours repeatedly for 3 days. 

Conclusion: The obtained data from this study suggest that morphine at different concentrations doesn’t affect the viability of SH-SY5Y cells when they are exposed to morphine for 24 hours, but the cell viability of SH-SY5Y cells are decreased when the cells are treated with the same dose of morphine every 24 hours repeatedly for 3 days which can be associated with the damage in mitochondrial activity, cell membrane and decreased number of esterase enzymes inside the cells.