A Slowly Dissociating form of Bovine Hippocampal Synaptic Membrane Opiate Receptors

Since 1973 considerable effort has been devoted to the study of opiate receptors in nervous tissue. Most of these studies have utilized crude membrane preparations with few attempts to localize receptors within the cell. We have recently investigated the subcellular location of opiate receptors in rat forebrain. In our initial experiments we found receptor enrichment in highly purified synaptic plasma membrane (s.p.m.) fractions [1] and in microsomes [2] which mainly contain vesicles derived from Golgi apparatus and endoplasmic reticulum. We have since attempted to characterize the receptors in each organelle population.