Subsequent maternal separation exacerbates neurobehavioral abnormalities in rats neonatally exposed to sevoflurane anesthesia

Publication date: 20 November 2017 Source:Neuroscience Letters, Volume 661 Author(s): Jiaojiao Yang, Lingsha Ju, Min Jia, Hui Zhang, Xiaoru Sun, Muhuo Ji, Jianjun Yang, Anatoly E. Martynyuk Several recent studies suggest that in the human population, a routine, short anesthetic in otherwise healthy infants is void of neurodevelopmental insult. On the other hand, many human retrospective epidemiological studies report evidence of cognitive abnormalities in children after testing those who had different anesthesia-requiring procedures in early childhood. We tested in a rat model whether post-anesthesia stressful environmental factors can contribute to developmental abnormalities that were initiated by a relatively short exposure to sevoflurane, the most widely used anesthetic in pediatric anesthesia, whose polyvalent actions include enhancement of gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptor (GABAAR) activity. Postnatal day 6 (P6) male Sprague-Dawley rats were anesthetized with sevoflurane for 60min. To simulate subsequent stress, the animals were subjected to a single maternal separation for 180min at P10. To study the role of GABAAR-mediated depolarization, subgroups of P6 rats received a single injection of the Na+-K+-2Cl− (NKCC1) inhibitor, bumetanide, prior to initiation of anesthesia with sevoflurane. Rats that were exposed to sevoflurane had decreased hypothalamic K+-2Cl− (KCC2) mRNA level (F(2,13) =3.839, P=0.049), increased NKCC1/KCC2 mRNA ratio (F(2,13) =5.04...
Source: Neuroscience Letters - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research