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PMID: 10468626 Published · ppublish English Journal Article

Volatile anesthetics block actin-based motility in dendritic spines.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ·Vol. 96 ·No. 18 ·1999-08-31 ·Pages 10433-7

Kaech S, Brinkhaus H, Matus A

Abstract

Dendritic spines form the postsynaptic contact sites for most excitatory synapses in the brain. Spines occur in a wide range of different shapes that can vary depending on an animal's experience or behavioral status. Recently we showed that spines on living neurons can change shape within seconds in a process that depends on actin polymerization. We have now found that this morphological plasticity is blocked by inhalational anesthetics at concentrations at which they are clinically effective. These volatile compounds also block actin-based motility in fibroblasts, indicating that their action is independent of neuron-specific components and thus identifying the actin cytoskeleton as a general cellular target of anesthetic action. These observations imply that inhibition of actin dynamics at brain synapses occurs during general anesthesia and that inhalational anesthetics are capable of influencing the morphological plasticity of excitatory synapses in the brain.

MeSH Terms
Actins/genetics,physiology Anesthetics, Inhalation/pharmacology Animals Cell Movement/drug effects Cell Size/drug effects Cells, Cultured Chloroform/pharmacology Dendrites/drug effects,physiology,ultrastructure Embryo, Mammalian Enflurane/pharmacology Ether/pharmacology Halothane/pharmacology Hippocampus/cytology,physiology Isoflurane/pharmacology Methoxyflurane/pharmacology Neuronal Plasticity/drug effects Neurons/cytology,drug effects,physiology Rats Recombinant Proteins/metabolism Transfection
Chemicals
Actins Anesthetics, Inhalation Recombinant Proteins Ether Methoxyflurane Chloroform Enflurane Isoflurane Halothane
Authors & Affiliations
3 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Kaech S
Friedrich Miescher Institute, P.O. Box 2543, 4002 Basel, Switzerland.
Brinkhaus H
Matus A
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Article Info
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Abbr.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.96.18.10433
Published
1999-08-31
Pages
10433-7
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
7505876
PMCID
PMC17906
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1073/pnas.96.18.10433 PMC Full Text View journal details
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