Fig. 5.
Sevoflurane exposure in postnatal day (PND) 16 to 17 female mice increases excitatory synaptic protein expression and inhibitory synaptic transmission but does not affect adult behavior. (A) Examples of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs) 6 h after sevoflurane or oxygen exposure. (B) Normal amplitude and frequency of mEPSCs 6 h after sevoflurane exposure (n = 15 cells from three mice for control and n = 17 cells from three mice for sevoflurane-exposed mice; independent Student’s t test). (C) Western blot was performed with cerebral cortex samples obtained 6 h after oxygen or sevoflurane exposure. (D) Western blot quantification results of postsynaptic density 95 (PSD95), AMPA receptor subunit GluA1, AMPA receptor subunit GluA2 after sevoflurane exposure (n = 4 for control and n = 5 for sevoflurane-exposed mice; *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01, independent Student’s t test). (E) Examples of miniature inhibitory synaptic currents (mIPSCs) 6 h after sevoflurane or oxygen exposure. (F) Increased frequency but normal amplitude of mIPSCs 6 h after sevoflurane exposure (n = 10 cells from three mice for control and n = 12 cells from three mice for sevoflurane-exposed mice; *P < 0.05, independent Student’s t test). (G, H) Sevoflurane-exposed mice exhibit normal activity and spend a comparable amount of time in the center region in the open field test (independent Student’s t test). (I) Sevoflurane exposure did not affect female sociability in the three-chamber test (independent Student’s t test). (I to K) Sevoflurane exposure did not affect learning and memory in the fear chamber test. (I) The conditioning slope was not effected by sevoflurane exposure (linear mixed effect modeling with a fixed effect for slope. Correlated random intercept and random slope term were incorporated into the model). (J, K) Mice exposed to sevoflurane displayed comparable contextual- and cued-fear test performance (independent Student’s t test and Kruskal–Wallis test). The number of mice used in behavioral tests: n = 15 for control and n = 17 for sevoflurane-exposed mice. Values are presented as mean ± SD. n.s. = not significant; PARP = poly (adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase.