These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Volatile anesthetics depress glutamate transmission via presynaptic actions.
    Author: Maclver MB, Mikulec AA, Amagasu SM, Monroe FA.
    Journal: Anesthesiology; 1996 Oct; 85(4):823-34. PubMed ID: 8873553.
    Abstract:
    BACKGROUND: Recent evidence for a presynaptic depression of glutamate release produced by volatile anesthetics prompted the current study of isoflurane and halothane effects on glutamate-mediated transmission in the mammalian central nervous system. METHODS: Electrophysiologic recordings from CA1 neurons in rat hippocampal brain slices were used to measure anesthetic effects on glutamate-mediated excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) amplitudes and paired pulse facilitation. Paired pulse facilitation is known to be altered when the calcium-dependent release of glutamate is depressed, but not when EPSP amplitudes are depressed by postsynaptic mechanisms. RESULTS: Isoflurane depressed EPSP amplitudes over a concentration range of 0.35-2.8 vol %, with a 50% depression (EC50) occurring at 1.0 vol % (0.71 rat minimum alveolar concentration). This depression was accompanied by an increase in paired-pulse facilitation of approximately 30% at 1.7 vol %, using interpulse intervals of 120 ms. Halothane depressed EPSP amplitudes in a concentration-dependent manner (0.3-2.4 vol %, EC50 = 1.1 minimum alveolar concentration; 1.3 vol %) and also increased facilitation by approximately 20% at 1.2 vol %. These effects persisted in the presence of 10 microM bicuculline, indicating that enhanced gamma-aminobutyric acid-mediated inhibition was not involved. The anesthetic-induced increase in facilitation and EPSP depression was mimicked by lowering extracellular calcium, which is known to depress glutamate release at these synapses. The postsynaptic glutamate receptor antagonist 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione depressed EPSP amplitudes with no change in facilitation. CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirm earlier findings that clinically relevant concentrations of volatile anesthetics depress glutamate-mediated synaptic transmission. The observed increases in synaptic facilitation support recent findings from biochemical and electrophysiologic studies indicating presynaptic sites of action contribute to anesthetic-induced depression of excitatory transmission. This anesthetic-induced reduction in glutamate release would contribute to the central nervous system depression associated with anesthesia by adding to postsynaptic depressant actions on glutamate receptors.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]