Role of desflurane on oxidative stress in neuroscience

Oxidative stress in a neuron is induced by several  physiological and pathological processes. Within the  pathophysiological processes, ischemia-reperfusion  injury has major role in the neurons and brain, because  the neurons and brain are very sensitive to oxidative  stress as compared to other tissues due to their high  oxygen consumption rate and rich poly unsaturated fatty  acid content but low antioxidant levels. Results of  rodent studies indicated that exposure to volatile  anesthetics as a result of ischemia-reperfusion injury  can active leukocytes or alveolar macrophages, which,  in turn, release inflammatory mediators and reactive  oxygen species (ROS). This release of inflammatory  mediators, ischemia/reperfusion injury, and ROS has  been clearly demonstrated in generalized inflammatory  reactions involving the production of phagocytic cells  such as leucocytes and microglia. A common volatile  general anesthetic is desflurane and results of several  recent papers indicated that it  an increase oxidative  stress but can decrease antioxidant defense mechanisms  through ischemia/reperfusion injury mechanisms.  The excessive production of ROS is scavenged by  enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. Major  enzymatic antioxidants are vitamin A, vitamin C,  vitamin E, glutathione, alpha lipoic acid and melatonin.  Major non enzymatic antioxidants are glutathione  peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and  catalase (CAT). Superoxide radical is converted to  hydrogen peroxide by SOD enzyme and then the  hydrogen peroxide is converted to water by CAT and  GSH-Px enzymes. Results of papers indicated that the  CAT, GSH-Px, SOD, vitamin A, vitamin E and vitamin  C values were decreased in plasma and erythrocytes of  human and animals by desflurane anesthesia, but  oxidative stress levels were increased by desflurane  anesthesia (Allaouchiche et al. 2001; Ceylan et al. 2011;  Yalcin et al. 2013). In the oral presentation, I will  summarize the results of recent papers on oxidative  stress and antioxidants in human and rodents.  In conclusion, it seems that desflurane anesthesia  has oxidant effects through down-regulating the  enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants but upregulating  of lipid peroxidation.