[Action of a dental anesthetic on cell respiration]

It is often required to employ local anesthetics in practising dentistry, particularly when children have to be treated. Our researches on neurotropic drugs in the last years follow our hypothesis that the strong effects on nervous system have always hidden more widespread effects on all tissues and cells. In vitro essays carried out on rat liver mitochondria show that a dental anesthetic, lidocaine, depress respiration coupled to phosphorylation in mitochondria having a good respiratory control; so respiratory control too is depressed, but P/O ratio is unaffected; also respiration uncoupled by 2,4-dinitrophenol is depressed. Depressing respiration cooperates with anesthesia; unchanging P/O is good for the health of the cells and tissues treated by the lidocaine.