Neurochemistry of Anesthetic States

Anesthetic mechanisms that eliminate consciousness and perception of pain are products of the nervous system. Chemical approaches to the study of anesthetic mechanisms have the potential to serve as an ideal interface between basic and clinical neuroscience. There are disproportionately more basic neurochemical studies than clinical studies of anesthetic mechanisms. Even within neuroscience, the study of anesthetic mechanisms is sparse. The Society for Neuroscience hosts one of the world's largest and most vibrant scientific meetings, yet the content themes of that meeting do not include anesthesia. One goal of this chapter is to facilitate neurochemical studies of anesthetic mechanisms by outlining user-friendly descriptions of existing and emerging techniques. The introduction provides a context for chapter goals. The second portion of this chapter focuses on microdialysis methods that enable the humane acquisition of neurochemical samples from intact, behaving animals during anesthetic induction, maintenance, and emergence. No single neurotransmitter and no single brain region regulate the physiological and behavioral traits characteristic of any anesthetic state. This limitation is being addressed via application of new instrumentation and techniques in analytic chemistry. The final third of this chapter highlights selected omics approaches that are now being applied to the neurochemical study of anesthetic mechanisms. We hope that this brief chapter can stimulate basic and clinical metabolomic approaches aiming to elucidate the mechanisms of anesthetic action.