Source Paper
Early Exposure to Common Anesthetic Agents Causes Widespread Neurodegeneration in the Developing Rat Brain and Persistent Learning Deficits
Vesna Jevtovic-Todorovic, Richard E. Hartman, Yukitoshi Izumi, Nicholas D. Benshoff, Krikor Dikranian et al.
Journal of Neuroscience • 2003
Anesthetic Drug Administration and Neurodegeneration Assessment
Objective: To determine whether exposure of developing rat brain to a combination of anesthetic agents (midazolam, nitrous oxide, and isoflurane) causes apoptotic neurodegeneration, synaptic dysfunction, and persistent learning/memory deficits
This is a Anesthetic Drug Administration and Neurodegeneration Assessment protocol using rat as the model organism. The procedure involves 4 procedural steps, 3 materials. Extracted from a 2003 paper published in Journal of Neuroscience.
Model and subjects
rat • not specified • unknown • 7 days old • not specified
Study window
~6 hours hands-on
Core workflow
Anesthetic administration • Assessment of apoptotic neurodegeneration • Assessment of hippocampal synaptic function
Primary readouts
- Apoptotic neurodegeneration in developing brain
- Hippocampal synaptic function deficits
- Persistent memory/learning impairments
Key equipment and reagents
Use this page as an execution guide, then fall back to the source paper whenever you need exact exclusions, dosing details, or assay-specific caveats.
Confirm first
- Verify the animal model, intervention setup, and collection timepoints against the source paper.
- Check that every direct vendor link matches the exact specification your lab plans to run.
Use the page like this
- Work through the protocol steps in order and use the inline vendor chips only when you need to source or verify an item.
- Jump to Experimental Context for readouts, data shape, and analysis flow before planning downstream analysis.
Protocol Steps
Start here. The step list is optimized for running the experiment, with direct vendor links available inline when you need to source a cited item.
Anesthetic administration
Administer combination of midazolam, nitrous oxide, and isoflurane to 7-day-old infant rats
Note: Doses sufficient to maintain surgical plane of anesthesia
View evidence from paper
“administered to 7-d-old infant rats a combination of drugs commonly used in pediatric anesthesia (midazolam, nitrous oxide, and isoflurane) in doses sufficient to maintain a surgical plane of anesthesia for 6 hr”
Assessment of apoptotic neurodegeneration
Observe and measure apoptotic neurodegeneration in the developing brain following anesthetic exposure
Note: Widespread apoptotic neurodegeneration was observed
View evidence from paper
“this causes widespread apoptotic neurodegeneration in the developing brain, deficits in hippocampal synaptic function, and persistent memory/learning impairments”
Assessment of hippocampal synaptic function
Measure deficits in hippocampal synaptic function resulting from anesthetic exposure
Note: Deficits in hippocampal synaptic function were observed
View evidence from paper
“this causes widespread apoptotic neurodegeneration in the developing brain, deficits in hippocampal synaptic function, and persistent memory/learning impairments”
Assessment of learning and memory deficits
Evaluate persistent memory and learning impairments following anesthetic exposure
Note: Persistent memory/learning impairments were observed
View evidence from paper
“this causes widespread apoptotic neurodegeneration in the developing brain, deficits in hippocampal synaptic function, and persistent memory/learning impairments”