Abstract

This study was aimed at investigating the effects of sevoflurane on short memory impairment and the relative synaptic mechanism. To achieve this, at 12, 24 and 72 h after the mice were exposed to 1.5% sevoflurane for 1 h, the spontaneous alternation and locomotor activity was assessed by Y maze and the short term potentiation (STP) were measured with extracellular recording technique in hippocampal slices. Results indicated that at 12 h after administration with sevoflurane in vivo, the spontaneous alternation and locomotor activity decreased significantly compared with that of control group, and the population spike amplitude after induction of STP decreased significantly in hippocampal slices. However, there was no difference at 24 and 72 h. After administration with sevoflurane in vitro, the basic or titanic population spike amplitude decreased significantly in hippocampal slices, but the amplitude could be recovered after wash-out. Therefore, sevoflurane impaired the short memory by suppressing synaptic transmission in the near future but not the long future.

Key words: Sevoflurane, memory, anesthesia, Y-maze.