Children’s Memory May Suffer With Repeated Exposure to Anesthesia
Children’s Memory May Suffer With Repeated Exposure to AnesthesiaResearchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Zhengzhou University, China, have found a connection between memory impairment and repeated exposure to anesthesia in juvenile mice and rats. The study, recently published
Children’s Memory May Suffer With Repeated Exposure to Anesthesia
Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Zhengzhou University, China, have found a connection between memory impairment and repeated exposure to anesthesia in juvenile mice and rats. The study, recently published in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, investigated the effects of repeated exposure of an anesthetic commonly administered to pediatric patients—isoflurane—to juvenile and adult rats and mice. The results revealed that the exposure to the anesthesia eliminated significant numbers of stem cells in the hippocampus area of the brain, which controls memory function.
The study anesthetized both juvenile and adult mice and rats as well as adult rats with isoflurane for 35 minutes per day for 4 subsequent days. Isoflurane is a commonly used inhaled anesthetic administered with air and/or oxygen and is frequently used in conjunction with nitrous oxide. The researchers then tested the subjects’ object recognition and reversal learning and evaluated the level of cell death and the structure and function of cells. Although the adult rats were not affected, the juvenile mice and rats suffered significant impairment in both object recognition and reversal learning as well as a decrease in the hippocampal stem cells. The cognition impairments worsened as the mice and rats grew older.
To read an abstract of the study, visit: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20068576
Source: University of Gothenburg
