Effect of ether, sodium pentobarbital and chloral hydrate anesthesia on rat plasma metabolite concentrations.

Abstract

The effect of ethyl ether, pentobarbital sodium (Nembutal®) and chloral hydrate anesthesia on the concentrations of glucose, lactate, glycerol, insulin, individual amino acids and urea have been studied in rat plasma, as well as the glycogen content in the animal liver and striated muscle. Control animals were injected with saline solution. Two samples were taken from each animal at 15 and 30 minutes from the beginning of anesthesia. These samples were obtained from the cut tail's tip and from the neck wound produced by beheading the animal. Results show considerable differences between the three sets of animals and their controls as well as in their tail versus neck values. The overall effect of the three anesthetics used were roughly the same in spite of their different actions upon the different parameters studied. This was most marked in the aminograms. Significant changes induced were rather similar in number for all. The metabolite concentration profile in each situation may be used as a reference for possible artifacts induced by any experimental approach using these anesthetics.

ilico, pentobarbital s6dico (Nembutal®) e hidrato de cloral, sobre la concentraci6n de distintos metabolitos en el plasma de rata (glucosa, lactato, glicerol, insulina, aminoacidos individuales y urea), asi como el contenido en gluc6geno del higado y del musculo estriado. Los animales control fueron inyectados con soluci6n salina. A los 15 y 30 minutos de] inicio de la anestesia se sacaron dos muestras de cada animal, una de la herida del cuello producida al decapitar al animal y otra de la punta de la cola. Las diferencias encontradas fueron considerables en los tres grupos de animales, tanto con respecto a los animales control como las muestras de] cuello con respecto a las de la cola. El efecto global de los tres anestesicos estudiados puede considerarse equivalente, a pesar de las l6gicas diferencias enlre los distintos parametros estudiados, especialmente para los aminoacidos plasmaticos. Las concentraciones de metabolitos en cada situaci6n pueden servir de referencia de los posibles artefactos experimentales introducidos con el uso de anestesicos.