Affiliations: Department of Anesthesiology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, P.R. China
Correspondence:
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Correspondence to: Prof. Guoqing Zhao, Department of Anesthesiology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, 126 Xiantai Street, Changchun, Jilin 130033, P.R. China. E-mail: guoqing@jlu.edu.cn.
Abstract: Background:Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease which shows a set of symptoms involving cognitive changes and psychological changes. Given that AD is the most common form of dementia in aging population and the increasing demand for anesthesia/surgery with aging, there has been significant interest in the exact impact of volatile anesthetics on cognitive function and pathological alterations in AD population. Objective:This study aimed to investigate behavioral changes and neuropathology in the 5xFAD mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease with short-term exposure or long-term exposure to desflurane, sevoflurane, or isoflurane. Methods:In this study, we exposed 5xFAD mouse model of AD to isoflurane, sevoflurane, or desflurane in two different time periods (30 min and 6 h), and the memory related behaviors as well as the pathological changes in 5xFAD mice were evaluated 7 days after the anesthetic exposure. Results:We found that short-term exposure to volatile anesthetics did not affect hippocampus dependent memory and the amyloid-β (Aβ) deposition in the brain. However, long-term exposure to sevoflurane or isoflurane significantly increased the Aβ deposition in CA1 and CA3 regions of hippocampus, as well as the glial cell activation in amygdala. Besides, the PSD-95 expression was decreased in 5xFAD mice with exposure to sevoflurane or isoflurane and the caspase-3 activation was enhanced in isoflurane, sevoflurane, and desflurane groups. Conclusion:Our results demonstrate the time-dependent effects of common volatile anesthetics and implicate that desflurane has the potential benefits to prolonged anesthetic exposure in AD patients.
