Cognitive impairments induced by early anesthesia with sevoflurane are reversible by intermittent exposure to enriched environments

• DOI: 10.22533/at.ed.793192312

• Palavras-chave: Palavras-chave

• Keywords: development; inhalational anesthetics; learning; memory.

• Abstract:

  Early exposure to inhalational anesthetics are linked with neurodegeneration, and recent findings show that the exposure to enriched environments can improve neurogenesis. In this work, we tested whether exposure to enriched environments could revert the negative effects induced by sevoflurane. When reached 14 days of age, rats from the SEVO group were subjected to deep anesthesia by sevoflurane 3%, while rats from the oxygen group (O2) were only exposed to oxygen and controls were kept in the animal facility. Rats from the stimulus groups (STIM and SEVO+STIM) were placed together in large cages with tube labyrinths for one hour three days per week for 18 days. On day 40, animals were subjected to behavioral tasks. Even though in the open field task no differences were observed in the locomotor activity, exploratory behavior or anxiety, the Morris water maze showed that the SEVO group took more time to perform the task in all five training days, while rats from the SEVO+STIM group performed similar to controls. Memory impairments could also be observed in the inhibitory avoidance task, where SEVO animals were the only ones to show a significant reduction in the freezing time. BDNF levels were significantly increased in the prefrontal cortex of animals of both stimulated groups, while it was higher only in the hippocampi of SEVO+STIM rats. This work provides further evidence on the impairments caused by early exposure to sevoflurane, and shows the therapeutic effects of recreation, exercise, and social interaction, even when intermittent.

• Número de páginas: 7