Studies on the long-term effects of general anesthetics on the learning ability of aged rats

据报道，异氟醚是一种吸入性全身麻醉剂，在动物从麻醉中醒来几周后，会损害大鼠的空间学习能力。在这项研究中，我们测试了以下假设：(1)异氟醚对幼年大鼠麻醉后的空间学习有影响，(2)如果在夜间麻醉，大鼠更活跃，这种影响更明显。大鼠被分为4组(1)白天使用1.2%异氟醚2小时，(2)不麻醉，但处理方式与(1)白天相同，(3)1.2%异氟醚在夜间使用2小时，(4)不麻醉，但处理方式与(4)相同。8臂径向迷宫试验于麻醉或搬运后2d开始，持续21d。这4组大鼠在测试的任何测量参数上都没有不同，例如学习迷宫所需的天数。我们的结论是，无论麻醉是在白天还是晚上进行，异氟醚都不会影响幼年成年大鼠麻醉后的空间学习能力。

It has been reported that isoflurane, an inhalational general anesthetic, impairs spatial learning in rats weeks after the animals wake up from anesthesia. In this study, we tested the hypotheses that (1) isoflurane affects spatial learning after anesthesia in young adult rats, and that (2) this effect is more pronounced if anesthesia is performed during the night time while the rat is more active.The rats were divided into 4 groups (1) isoflurane 1.2% for 2 hours during the day time, (2) no anesthesia but otherwise handled identically as in (1) during the day time, (3) isoflurane 1.2% for 2 hours during the night time, (4) no anesthesia but otherwise handled identically as in (4). The 8-arm radial maze test was started 2 days after anesthesia or handling and continued for 21 days. These 4 groups of rats did not differ in any of the measured paremeters for this test, such as the number of days required to learn the maze. We conclude that isoflurane does NOT affect spatial learning ability after anesthesia in young adult rat, irrespective of whether anesthesia was administered during the day or night.