Common Anesthesia Drug only Temporarily Disrupts Cell Connections

A new study conducted on juvenile rat brain cells suggest that the effects of a commonly used anesthesia drug only temporarily disrupts cell connections.

As researchers have feared the potential negative effects on the long-term mental health of many children who have undergone local anesthesia, recent findings published in the journal PLOS ONE found little need for concern.

"Since these procedures are unavoidable in most cases, it's important to understand the mechanisms associated with the potentially toxic effects of anesthetics on the developing brain, and on the adult brain as well," said co-investigator, Shelley Halpain, a professor of biology at the University of California San Diego and the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, via Medical Xpress. "Because the clinical studies haven't been completed, preclinical studies, such as ours, are needed to define the effects of various anesthetics on brain structure and function."

For the study, researchers from the UC San Diego and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York examined a commonly used anesthetic, also known as isolflurane.

Researchers took neurons from the hippocampus of embryonic rats and culture the brain cells for a three-week-period so that they had proper time to mature and develop new synaptic connections and dendritic spines.

By using neurons in culture instead of the animal brains, researchers were able to take images of the synapses at high spatial resolution with techniques called fluorescence light microscopy and confocal imaging; this allowed any individual changes to the dendritic spines once they had been exposed to isoflurane.

"We observed detectable decreases in dendritic spine numbers and shape within as little as 10 minutes," added Halpain. "However this spine loss and shrinkage was reversible after the anesthetic was washed out of the culture."

Researchers concluded that the study results were rather reassuring; all of the effects were reversible and fit within clinical effects of the drug.

However, they noted that determining the cognitive effects of isoflurane will require more research in the future.