Impact of Opium Addiction on Levels of Pro- and Anti-inflammatory Cytokines after Surgery

Background: opium addiction alters immune responses to stresses such as an injury due to changing the secretion of cytokines. the present study assessed the effect of opium addiction on the cytokines [tumor necrosis factor α (tnfα), interferon-γ (ifn-γ), interleukin-4 (il-4), and il-10] before and after laparotomy. methods: male rats were randomly divided into control and opium addicted (n = 20). then, cytokines were measured before surgery, immediately after surgery (within 30-60 minutes) and 24 hours after surgery. findings: ifn-γ was raised in an addicted group in three phases of the study as compared to that of the control group. il-4 in opium addicted group decreased in two phases after surgery compared to the control group. il-4 was lower after surgery in comparison to before surgery in the opium addicted group. the difference in il-10 and tnfα levels was not statistically significant in the all groups measured in three phases of the investigation. conclusion: the results revealed that opium addiction can increase plasma level of ifn-γ in rats and decrease plasma level of il-4 after surgical stress. it seems that opium addicted rats are a more susceptible to increased inflammation.