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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

A Mouse Tumor Model of Surgical Stress to Explore the Mechanisms of Postoperative Immunosuppression and Evaluate Novel Perioperative Immunotherapies
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Effect of propofol and isoflurane anaesthesia on the immune response to surgery

T Inada1, Y Yamanouchi, S Jomura

  • 1Kansai Medical University, 10-15 Fumizono-cho, Moriguchi, Osaka, 570-8507, Japan. takefumi@wd5.so-net.ne.jp

Anaesthesia
|October 19, 2004
PubMed

There are two major subpopulations of peripheral helper T lymphocytes: T helper 1 (Th1) and T helper 2 (Th2) cells. Surgical stress increases the number of Th2 cells, and decreases that of Th1 cells, resulting in a decrease in the Th1/Th2 ratio, and, consequently, in suppressed cell-mediated immunity. Since anaesthesia can suppress the stress response to surgery, it may inhibit the decrease in the Th1/Th2 ratio. Using flow cytometry, we studied whether propofol anaesthesia (n = 9) or isoflurane anaesthesia (n = 9) had more effect on the decrease in the Th1/Th2 ratio after surgery in patients undergoing craniotomy. The Th1/Th2 ratio decreased significantly after isoflurane anaesthesia (p = 0.011), while it did not change after propofol anaesthesia. The ratio was significantly lower with isoflurane than propofol (p = 0.009). Propofol anaesthesia attenuated the surgical stress-induced adverse immune response better than isoflurane anaesthesia.

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