Mild acute stress prevents the memory impairment induced by long-term isoflurane anesthesia

Tiantian Liu; Yutong Dai; Minhui Xu; Ying Chen; Tianjiao Xia; Xin Zhao

doi:10.1515/tnsci-2022-0261

Mild acute stress prevents the memory impairment induced by long-term isoflurane anesthesia

Transl Neurosci. 2022 Dec 1;13(1):421-429. doi: 10.1515/tnsci-2022-0261. eCollection 2022 Jan 1.

Authors

Tiantian Liu^#^{1

2

3}, Yutong Dai^#^{1

2

3}, Minhui Xu^{1

2

3}, Ying Chen^{1

2

3}, Tianjiao Xia^{1

2

3}, Xin Zhao^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anesthesiology, Nanjing Stomatological Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
² Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
³ Department of Anesthesiology, Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Objectives: Long-term isoflurane anesthesia exposure could result in postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). Preoperative stress is also reported to be a risk factor of POCD. However, it is unknown whether acute stress could impair memory after long-term isoflurane anesthesia.

Methods: In this study, we categorized the mice with acute stress into mild (30 min restraint stress), moderate (60 min restraint stress), and severe (120 min restraint stress) stress groups and then we used Open-Field Test (OFT) to detect whether different scales of acute restraint stress successfully induced acute stress in mice. The memory performance of mice was measured using contextual and cued memory test, and the brain-derived neurotrophic factor protein levels of hippocampus was detected by Western blot.

Results: We verified that mild stress has pro-cognitive effect, but severe stress has amnestic effect. Moreover, we found that mild and moderate other than severe acute stress could partially attenuate the memory impairment induced by long-term isoflurane anesthesia.

Conclusion: Mild and moderate acute stress could partially attenuate the memory impairment induced by long-term isoflurane anesthesia.

Keywords: POCD; acute stress; isoflurane; memory impairment.