| Summary: | Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (UC), two types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and idiopathic slow transit constipation (ISTC) are serious diseases of the digestive system with unknown aetiologies. Since it is well known that opioids have a profound effect on the gastrointestinal tract, and also play an important role in immune regulation, it is postulated that they may be involved in the pathophysiology of these debilitating disorders. In this investigation immunohistochemical techniques were used to determine a potential role for opioids in intestinal disease by evaluating the abundance and localisation of the four opioid receptors; DOR, KOR, MOR and ORLl, in full thickness sections of colon from Crohn's disease, UC and ISTC patients, compared to healthy specimens. The endogenous ligand for ORLl, nociceptin, was also investigated, and Tiffalyzer software was used for semi-quantification of the areas of immunoreactivity in the submucosal and myenteric plexuses.
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