Abdominal Surgery under Ketamine Anesthesia during Second Trimester Impairs Hippocampal Learning and Memory of Offspring by Regulating Dendrite Spine Remodeling in Rats

Neurotoxicology. 2024 Feb 10:S0161-813X(24)00017-2. doi: 10.1016/j.neuro.2024.02.003. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTRecent evidence showed that general anesthesia produces long-term neurotoxicity and cognitive dysfunction. However, it remains unclear whether maternal non-obstetric surgery under ketamine anesthesia during second trimester causes cognitive impairment in offspring. The present study assigned pregnant rats into three groups: 1) normal control group receiving no anesthesia and no surgery, 2) ketamine group receiving ketamine anesthesia for 2h on the 14th day of gestation but no surgery, and 3) surgery group receiving abdominal surgery under ketamine anesthesia on the 14th day of gestation. On postnatal day 1, the offspring rats in Ketamine group and surgery group were assigned to receive intra-peritoneal injection of Senegenin (15mg/kg), once per day for consecutive 14 days. The offspring's spatial perception, anxiety-like behavior, and learning and memory were evaluated. Then the offspring's hippocampal tissues were collected. The offspring of the surgery group were impaired in the spatial perception in the cliff avoidance test and the spatial learning and memory in the Morris water maze test. Accordingly, the activity of histone deacetylases increased, the protein levels of NEDD9, BDNF, p-TrkB, Syn and PSD-95 decreased, and the density of dendritic spines reduced in the hippocampus of the offspring of the surgery group, and such effects were not seen in the offs...
Source: Neurotoxicology - Category: Neurology Authors: Source Type: research