Opioid effects on hepatic disposition of dyes in mice.

Morphine administration acutely reduced plasma clearance of sulfobromophthalein (BSP) in mice and increased hepatic retention of this dye. Increasing morphine doses from 5 to 40 mg/kg s.c. progressively raised plasma and liver BSP levels. Morphine-treated mice, warmed to reverse hypothermia, still had higher plasma and liver BSP levels. The narcotic also raised plasma levels of two dyes which are not conjugated, indocyanine green and dibromosulfophthalein. Naloxone reversed morphine-induced elevation of plasma BSP levels. In bile duct-ligated mice, plasma BSP levels were very high but hepatic BSP levels remained low, both after saline or morphine. Thus, the effects of morphine on BSP disposition differed from those of biliary occlusion. BSP content in bile was reduced by morphine, as dye levels were raised in plasma and hepatic parenchyma. In bile duct-cannulated mice morphine increased BSP levels in plasma and liver whereas reducing the amount of dye eliminated in bile.