Early postnatal exposure to isoflurane causes cognitive deficits and disrupts development of newborn hippocampal neurons via activation of the mTOR pathway.

ABSTRACT: Clinical and preclinical studies indicate that early postnatal exposure to anesthetics can lead to lasting deficits in learning and other cognitive processes. The mechanism underlying this phenomenon has not been clarified and there is no treatment currently available. Recent evidence suggests that anesthetics might cause persistent deficits in cognitive function by disrupting key events in brain development. The hippocampus, a brain region that is critical for learning and memory, contains a large number of neurons that develop in the early postnatal period, which are thus vulnerable to perturbation by anesthetic exposure. Using an in vivo mouse model we demonstrate abnormal development of dendrite arbors and dendritic spines in newly generated dentate gyrus granule cell neurons of the hi

SUBMITTER: Kang E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5500005 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature