In 1981, a startling article was published in Anesthesia& Analgesia: “Exposure to Halothane and Enflurane Affects Learning Function of Murine Progeny.” The study found that adolescent mice that had been exposed in utero to halothane or enflurane anesthesia had markedly impaired maze learning compared with unexposed controls. Decades before the discovery of epigenetics, the article even showed that, in some cases, impairments were also found in the next generation. The authors proposed further research to explore the relevance of their findings to anesthesia in humans. The article was, however, largely ignored and the authors’ proposal not pursued.
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- Intranasal insulin rescues repeated anesthesia-induced deficits in synaptic plasticity and memory and prevents apoptosis in neonatal mice via mTORC1.
- Mechanisms underlying neonate-specific metabolic effects of volatile anesthetics.
- Fetal surgery has no additional effect to general anesthesia on brain development in neonatal rabbits.
- Neonatal Isoflurane Does Not Affect Sleep Architecture and Minimally Alters Neuronal Beta Oscillations in Adolescent Rats.
- Pachypodol protects newborn rats from anaesthesia-induced apoptosis in the developing brain by regulating the JNK/ERK pathway.