Prolonged anesthesia alters brain synaptic architecture
Abstract
In human patients, prolonged medically induced coma (pMIC) is associated with significant cognitive deficits. Yet, a synapse-level neuromorphological correlate has been demonstrated experimentally only in early life, when the brain is highly plastic. The current notion is that synapses become increasingly stabilized and that MIC has no effect on synaptic dynamics in adulthood. Yet, the longest experimental study of MIC-associated synaptic changes has been only ∼6 h. We established a pMIC experimental protocol in mice and found that pMIC alters synaptic brain architecture and object recognition at all ages. Our results ring an alarm bell to the medical community and call for the development of individually tailored anesthetic regimens and intensified research on adjuvant therapeutic strategies to maintain brain structure and function during pMIC.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Feb 10, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.2023676118
Entities
People
- Alexander Leunig
- Darcy S Peterka
- Michael Wenzel
- Rafael Yuste
- Shuting Han
Organizations
- Columbia University
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- National Eye Institute
- National Institute of Mental Health