Due to its distinct pharmacological profile and lower incidence of adverse events compared with other opioids, buprenorphine is considered a safe option for pain and substitution therapy. However, despite its wide clinical use, little is known about the synaptic effects of buprenorphine in nociceptive pathways. Here, we demonstrate dose-dependent, bimodal effects of buprenorphine on transmission at C-fiber synapses in rat spinal cord dorsal horn in vivo. At an analgesically active dose of 1500 g⅐kg
Ϫ1, buprenorphine reduced the strength of spinal C-fiber synapses. This depression required activation of spinal opioid receptors, putatively 1 -opioid receptors, as indicated by its sensitivity to spinal naloxone and to the selective 1 -opioid receptor antagonist naloxonazine. In contrast, a 15,000-fold lower dose of buprenorphine (0.1 g⅐kg Ϫ1 ), which caused thermal and mechanical hyperalgesia in behaving animals, induced an enhancement of transmission at spinal C-fiber synapses. The ultra-low-dose buprenorphine-induced synaptic facilitation was mediated by supraspinal naloxonazine-insensitive, but CTOP-sensitive -opioid receptors, descending serotonergic pathways, and activation of spinal glial cells. Selective inhibition of spinal 5-hydroxytryptamine-2 receptors (5-HT 2 Rs), putatively located on spinal astrocytes, abolished both the induction of synaptic facilitation and the hyperalgesia elicited by ultra-low-dose buprenorphine. Our study revealed that buprenorphine mediates its modulatory effects on transmission at spinal C-fiber synapses by dose dependently acting on distinct -opioid receptor subtypes located at different levels of the neuraxis.