{"title":"General anesthesia, germ cells and the missing heritability of autism: an urgent need for research.","authors":"Jill Escher, La Donna Ford","doi":"10.1093/eep/dvaa007","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Agents of general anesthesia (GA) are commonly employed in surgical, dental and diagnostic procedures to effectuate global suppression of the nervous system, but in addition to somatic targets, the subject's germ cells-from the embryonic primordial stage to the mature gametes-may likewise be exposed. Although GA is generally considered safe for most patients, evidence has accumulated that various compounds, in particular the synthetic volatile anesthetic gases (SVAGs) such as sevoflurane, can exert neurotoxic, genotoxic and epigenotoxic effects, with adverse consequences for cellular and genomic function in both somatic and germline cells. The purpose of this paper is to review the evidence demonstrating that GA, and in particular, SVAGs, may in some circumstances adversely impact the molecular program of germ cells, resulting in brain and behavioral pathology in the progeny born of the exposed cells. Further, we exhort the medical and scientific communities to undertake comprehensive experimental and epidemiological research programs to address this critical gap in risk assessment.</p>","PeriodicalId":11774,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epigenetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.8000,"publicationDate":"2020-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7368377/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental Epigenetics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/eep/dvaa007","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2020/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"GENETICS & HEREDITY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Agents of general anesthesia (GA) are commonly employed in surgical, dental and diagnostic procedures to effectuate global suppression of the nervous system, but in addition to somatic targets, the subject's germ cells-from the embryonic primordial stage to the mature gametes-may likewise be exposed. Although GA is generally considered safe for most patients, evidence has accumulated that various compounds, in particular the synthetic volatile anesthetic gases (SVAGs) such as sevoflurane, can exert neurotoxic, genotoxic and epigenotoxic effects, with adverse consequences for cellular and genomic function in both somatic and germline cells. The purpose of this paper is to review the evidence demonstrating that GA, and in particular, SVAGs, may in some circumstances adversely impact the molecular program of germ cells, resulting in brain and behavioral pathology in the progeny born of the exposed cells. Further, we exhort the medical and scientific communities to undertake comprehensive experimental and epidemiological research programs to address this critical gap in risk assessment.
全身麻醉(GA)制剂通常用于外科、牙科和诊断程序中,以实现对神经系统的全面抑制,但除了躯体目标外,受试者的生殖细胞--从胚胎原始阶段到成熟配子--也可能受到影响。虽然一般认为 GA 对大多数患者是安全的,但有证据表明,各种化合物,尤其是合成挥发性麻醉气体(SVAGs),如七氟醚,可能会产生神经毒性、基因毒性和表观遗传毒性效应,对体细胞和生殖细胞的细胞和基因组功能产生不利影响。本文旨在回顾证明 GA(尤其是 SVAGs)在某些情况下可能会对生殖细胞的分子程序产生不利影响的证据,从而导致暴露细胞的后代出现大脑和行为病理学。此外,我们呼吁医学界和科学界开展全面的实验和流行病学研究计划,以弥补风险评估中的这一重大缺陷。