2016 年 67 巻 1 号 p. 77-85
Transgenic mice experiments have become increasingly popular to research human inherited disease. However, a number of Japanese researchers have difficulty with the selection of anesthesia, after the classification of ketamine, probably the most used anesthesia, as a narcotic drug in 2006. Therefore, we compared the effects of inhalation anesthesia (2% of isoflurane, sevoflurane and enflurane) and intraperitoneal pentobarbital anesthesia (50mg/kg) on the electrocardiogram (ECG) and blood oxygen saturation (SPO₂) of mice. With inhalation anesthesia, the heart rate (HR) and SPO₂ were within an acceptable range. In contrast, the HR significantly decreased after initiation of pentobarbital anesthesia, and gradually returned to a low rate. Importantly, pentobarbital anesthesia significantly lowered SPO₂, and heart rate variability analysis showed unstable beat-to-beat intervals during pentobarbital anesthesia, suggesting that inhalation anesthesia is more suitable for evaluation of cardiorespiratory responses than pentobarbital anesthesia. During anesthesia, propranolol, a β-adrenergic blocker, significantly decreased heart rate. Atropine, a parasympathetic blocker, also significantly increased heart rate. Our data suggest that inhalation anesthesia is suitable for cardiorespiratory analysis in mice.
