Ketamine anesthesia helps preserve neuronal viability

• Published in: Journal of neuroscience methods Vol. 189; no. 2; pp. 230 - 232
• Main Authors: de Oliveira, Ramatis B., Graham, Brett, Howlett, Marcus C.H., Gravina, Fernanda S., Oliveira, Max W.S., Imtiaz, Mohammad S., Callister, Robert J., Lim, Rebecca, Brichta, Alan M., van Helden, Dirk F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 15.06.2010
• Subjects: Anesthesia; Anesthetics, Dissociative - administration & dosage; Anesthetics, Dissociative - pharmacology; Animals; Animals, Newborn; Cell Survival; Electric Capacitance; Electric Impedance; Electrophysiological properties; Hypoglossal motor neurons; Hypoglossal Nerve - drug effects; Hypoglossal Nerve - physiology; In Vitro Techniques; Input resistance; Ketamine; Ketamine - administration & dosage; Ketamine - pharmacology; Locus coeruleus; Locus Coeruleus - drug effects; Locus Coeruleus - physiology; Membrane Potentials - drug effects; Mice; Motor Neurons - drug effects; Motor Neurons - physiology; Neurons - drug effects; Neurons - physiology; Organ Preservation - methods; Patch-Clamp Techniques; Tissue and Organ Harvesting - methods; Viability; Input resistance; Ketamine; Hypoglossal motor neurons; Viability; Electrophysiological properties; Locus coeruleus
• ISSN: 0165-0270; 1872-678X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2010.03.029

The dissociative anesthetic ketamine that acts as an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist has been reported to improve neurological damage after experimental ischemic challenges. Here we show that deep anesthesia with ketamine before euthanasia by decapitation improves the quality of neonatal mouse neuronal brain slice preparations. Specifically we found that neurons of the locus coeruleus (LC) and hypoglossal motor neurons had significantly higher input resistances, and LC neurons that generally are difficult to voltage control, could be more reliably voltage clamped compared to control neurons.