We investigate the effect of the opening of the pseudogap on the temperature dependence of the in-plane resistivity ρab(T) for Bi 2212 epitaxial thin films having different oxygen contents. Using successive annealing treatments we were able to bring the films from a maximally overdoped state (characterized by a T c of 63 K) to a strongly underdoped state (T c <10 K ). We also observed a significant change in the temperature dependence of the in-plane resistivity ρab(T). This dependence presents two major characteristics: for the overdoped sample we observed an upward curvature from linearity while for underdoped samples we observed a downturn from linearity starting from a characteristic temperature T* which will be associated with the opening of the pseudogap in the excitation spectrum.