An article authored by Professor of Anesthesiology and Neuroscience, Anatoly Martynyuk, PhD, and his lab, along with colleagues from the McKnight Brain Institute and the Department of Psychiatry has been published in Anesthesiology.
The results of their study may present a new direction in the field of Perioperative Neurocognitive Disorder (PND), specifically intergenerational PND induced by repeated exposure to sevoflurane in young adulthood.
“Our findings provide the first experimental evidence that exposure of young adult rats to sevoflurane, induces: 1) acute increase in corticosterone levels at the time of anesthesia in exposed males and females; 2) long-term neuroendocrine abnormalities in exposed males only; 3) epigenetic reprograming of germ cells in both exposed parents; and 4) neurobehavioral abnormalities in male, but not female offspring of both exposed parents”, Dr. Martynyuk.
This study demonstrates that sevoflurane can induce two distinct types of adverse effects – the somatic cell effects and the germ cell effects; the latter may pass the adverse effects of parental exposure to sevoflurane to the future unexposed offspring.
Congratulations to Dr. Martynyuk and his team.
Read more on Anesthesiology’s website.
