Anesthesia Kills Brain Cells, but What Does It Mean?

Abstract

no difference in the percentage of GFP-positive granule cells that coexpressed either Ki67 or calretinin 60 days after exposure, indicating active proliferation of granule cell progenitors following anesthesia exposure. The number of GFP-expressing ectopic cells in the hilus and molecular layer was similar between groups, indicating normal migration patterns in cells born after anesthesia treatment. The results also confirmed that no difference was observed in the rate of cell proliferation of the hippocampus between isoflurane-treated animals and controls either 2 weeks or 2months after exposure. In conclusion, this study confirms that a short anesthetic exposure can cause increased apoptotic cell death in developing brains, but the rate of neurogenesis was unaffected, indicating that the murine hippocampus can regenerate the lost cells when compared with other regions of the brain that may show permanent neuron loss. But more subtle changes in neuronal structure or function may still occur in dentate, and this area requires further research.