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ANESTHETIC PHARMACOLOGY

Do Dopamine Receptors Mediate Part of MAC?

Yasumasa Tanifuji, MD^*, Yi Zhang, MD, Mark Liao, BS, Edmond I. Eger, II, MD, Michael J. Laster, DVM, and James M. Sonner, MD

From the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California, San Francisco, CA; *Department of Anesthesiology, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; and Department of Anesthesiology, Fuwai Hospital and Cardiovascular Institute, Beijing, People’s Republic of China.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Edmond I. Eger II, MD, Departments of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, S-455, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143-0464. Address e-mail to egere{at}anesthesia.ucsf.edu.

BACKGROUND: Depletion of central nervous system catecholamines, including dopamine, can decrease MAC (the minimum alveolar concentration of an inhaled anesthetic required to suppress movement in response to a noxious stimulus in 50% of test subjects); release of central nervous system catecholamines, including dopamine, can increase MAC; and increased free dopamine concentrations in the striatum can decrease MAC. Such findings suggest that dopamine receptors might mediate part of the capacity of inhaled anesthetics to provide immobility in the face of noxious stimulation.

METHODS: We measured the effect of blockade of D2 dopamine-mediated transmission with 0.3 mg/kg or 3.0 mg/kg droperidol on the MAC of cyclopropane, desflurane, halothane, isoflurane, or sevoflurane in rats, and the effect of 3.0 mg/kg droperidol on the dose or concentration of etomidate (an anesthetic known to act principally by enhancing the response of -aminobutyric acid_A receptors to -aminobutyric acid) required to suppress movement in response to noxious stimulation.

RESULTS: Blockade of D2 dopamine-mediated transmission with droperidol does not decrease the MAC of cyclopropane, desflurane, halothane, isoflurane, or sevoflurane or its equivalent for etomidate in rats.

CONCLUSIONS: These data, plus data from studies by others about D1 dopamine receptors, indicate that dopamine receptors do not mediate the immobility produced by inhaled anesthetics.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				E. I. Eger II, D. E. Raines, S. L. Shafer, H. C. Hemmings Jr, and J. M. Sonner Is a New Paradigm Needed to Explain How Inhaled Anesthetics Produce Immobility? Anesth. Analg., September 1, 2008; 107(3): 832 - 848. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Anesthesia & Analgesia® is published for the International Anesthesia Research Society® by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins with the assistance of Stanford University Libraries' HighWire Press®. Copyright 2006 by the International Anesthesia Research Society. Online ISSN: 1526-7598   Print ISSN: 0003-2999