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YANNICK GOUMON Y COLS. AN. R. ACAD. NAC. FARM.

and a morphine-specific ELISA. This showed the presence of
endogenous morphine in various places, including the hippocampus
and the cerebellum (Figure 3 and Figure 5).

Figure 5. Localization of endogenous morphine present in the mouse brain.
A) Immunodetection of endogenous morphine in the murine brain. The immu-
nostaining was done with an antibody that recognises morphine and its glucuro-
nidated derivatives. B) Localization of morphine label in the cerebellum using
mouse monoclonal anti-morphine antibody and an HRP-conjugated secondary
antibody. Morphine labelling was observed around Purkinje cells. ML, molecu-
lar layer; GL, granular layer. C) Electron micrograph (anti-morphine antibody) of
murine cerebellum showing nerve terminals on the cell body of a Purkinje cell. The
arrows indicate synaptic contacts with morphine-containing, presynaptic vesicles.
PC, Purkinje cell; N, nucleus.

Focussing on the cerebellum, we showed a morphine immuno-
histochemical signal in basket cells (78) and their terminals synaps-

402