Parasympathetic ganglia: naloxone antagonizes inhibition by leucine-enkephalin and GABA

Synaptic transmission in parasympathetic ganglia of the cat urinary bladder was depressed by low doses (0.1–10 μg i.a.) of Leu- or Met-enkephalin but only by larger doses (10 μg-1 mg i.a.) of morphine. Naloxone blocked the depressant effects of the opiates as well as the depression produced by GABA, but did not block the depressant effects of norepinephrine. Intracellular recording revealed that Leu-enkephalin reduced EPSP-amplitude and lowered the probability of synaptically evoked firing without altering postsynaptic membrane potential or resistance. These findings suggest that enkephalinergic inhibition in bladder ganglia is mediated at least in part by a presynaptic site of action on delta opiate receptors.