The neural ensembles activated by propofol and isoflurane anesthesia across the whole mouse brain

Qian Zhang; Jin Ke; Guangfu Cui; Shen Qian; Weixin Qian; Sun-Wook Moon; Yanyan Sun; Tianwen Huang; Zaisheng Qin

doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2024.138080

The neural ensembles activated by propofol and isoflurane anesthesia across the whole mouse brain

Neurosci Lett. 2024 Dec 9:138080. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2024.138080. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Qian Zhang¹, Jin Ke², Guangfu Cui³, Shen Qian⁴, Weixin Qian⁵, Sun-Wook Moon³, Yanyan Sun⁶, Tianwen Huang⁷, Zaisheng Qin⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anesthesiology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Precision Anesthesia and Perioperative Organ Protection, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510515, China; Department of Anesthesiology, Shenzhen University General Hospital and Shenzhen University Academy of Clinical Medical Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Manipulation, Institute of Brain Cognition and Brain Disease, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055, China; Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Drug Addiction, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science, Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
³ CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Manipulation, Institute of Brain Cognition and Brain Disease, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055, China.
⁴ Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230031, China.
⁵ CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Manipulation, Institute of Brain Cognition and Brain Disease, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁶ Department of Anesthesiology, Shenzhen University General Hospital and Shenzhen University Academy of Clinical Medical Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China.
⁷ CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Manipulation, Institute of Brain Cognition and Brain Disease, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055, China; Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Drug Addiction, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science, Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055, China. Electronic address: tw.huang@siat.ac.cn.
⁸ Department of Anesthesiology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Precision Anesthesia and Perioperative Organ Protection, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510515, China. Electronic address: mzkqzs@smu.edu.cn.

PMID: 39662772
DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2024.138080

Abstract

General anesthesia has been widely used in surgical procedures. Propofol and isoflurane are the most commonly used injectable and inhaled anesthetics, respectively. The various adverse effects induced by propofol and isoflurane are highly associated with the anesthetic-dependent change of brain activities. In this work, we aim to delineate a brain-wide neuronal activity landscape of injectable versus inhaled anesthetics to understand the neural basis underlying the different physiological effects induced by these two major types of anesthetics. Through detailed scanning of the whole mouse brain subjected to propofol or isoflurane anesthesia, in total, we identified 17 subcortical regions, 3 of which (anterodorsal preoptic nucleus, ADP; lateral habenular, LHb; inferior olivary nucleus, ION) were specifically activated by propofol, and 3 (ventral part of the lateral septum, LSV; the intermediate part of the lateral septum, LSI; the solitary tract nucleus, Sol) were specifically activated by isoflurane, with the remaining 11 were activated by both two anesthetics. Moreover, within the 17 brain regions, ADP, SubCV (subcoeruleus nucleus, ventral part), PCRtA (parvicellular reticular nucleus, alpba part) and ION were newly identified that activated by propofol or isoflurane, respectively. By using Targeted Recombination in Active Populations (TRAP) technique, we further showed that propofol and isoflurane largely activate the same group of neurons in supraoptic nucleus (SON), but activate different groups of neurons in central amygdala (CeA). Our results reveals the neural ensembles activated by injectable and inhaled anesthetics, and provides detailed anatomical references for future studies on general anesthesia.

Keywords: General anesthesia; Isoflurane; Propofol; TRAP; c-Fos.