News and Events

Recent years, the number of neonatal patients receiving surgery under general anesthesia is increasing. Previous studies have indicated that ketamine can disturb the proliferation and differentiation of developing neural stem cells (NSCs). Therefore, the safe use of ketamine in pediatric anesthesia has drawn great concern among anesthesiologists and children’s parents. Dexmedetomidine (DEX) is widely used in sedation, antianxiety and analgesia.

Prenatal propofol exposure induced neurotoxicity in the developing brains and led to persistent learning deficits in the offspring. Our goal was to use zebrafish to explore whether the decline in learning and memory was correlated with inhibition of neuronal growth after propofol exposure. Zebrafish embryos at 6 hours postfertilization (hpf) were exposed to control or 1, 2 or 4 μg/mL propofol until 48 hpf. Spontaneous locomotor activity and swimming behavior in response to dark‐to‐light photoperiod stimulation were studied in zebrafish larvae at 6 days postfertilization (dpf).

Fetal and neonatal exposure to propofol can lead to neuronal death and long-term neurobehavioral deficiencies in both rodents and nonhuman primates. Zebrafish embryo, which is fertilized ex-utero, has provided us a new model species to study the effects of general anesthetics on developing brain. Inhibited electron transport chain leads to mitochondrial dysfunction and insufficient energy production. The aim of this study was to dissect the role of electron transport chain in propofol-induced neurotoxicity.

During brain development, volatile anesthetic can rapidly interfere with physiologic patterns of dendritic development and synaptogenesis and impair the formation of precise neuronal circuits. KCC2 plays vital roles in spine development and synaptogenesis through its Cl- transport function and structural interactions with the spine cytoskeleton protein 4.1 N. The aim of this study was to dissect the mechanism of volatile anesthetics, which impair dendritic development and synaptogenesis via mediation of KCC2 cleavage.

Sevoflurane, one of the most commonly used anesthetic agents, has been demonstrated to induce widespread neurodegeneration in the developing brain. We aimed to evaluate the protective effects of a PDE-7 inhibitor (BRL-50481) against the neurotoxic effects of sevoflurane on the developing nervous system.

The possibility that exposure to inhalation anaesthetics inhibits neurogenesis and results in memory deficits has attracted considerable interest over the past decade. This study was designed to investigate the mechanism of the sevoflurane exposure-induced decline in hippocampal neurogenesis.