We are interested in learning how the immune system and the inflammation process is effected by acute and chronic opioid exposure. Preliminary evidence in animal models show that acute opioid exposure leads to decreased inflammatory responses, while chronic opioid exposure causes increased inflammatory responses, as measured by local cytokine release at the site of injury. Translating these findings to humans will lead to important new mechanistic knowledge that may ultimately improve our ability to treat pain.
We aim to examine the extent to which inflammation is affected by acute and chronic opioid exposure.