General Anesthetic Exposure During Early Adolescence Persistently Alters Ethanol Responses

Adolescent alcohol abuse can lead to behavioral dysfunction and chronic, relapsing alcohol use disorder (AUD) in adulthood. However, not all adolescents that consume alcohol will develop an AUD; therefore, it is critical to identify neural and environmental risk factors that contribute to increases in susceptibility to AUDs following adolescent alcohol (ethanol [EtOH]) exposure. We previously found that adolescent anesthetic exposure led to strikingly similar behavioral and neural effects as adolescent alcohol exposure. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that general anesthetic exposure during early adolescence would alter EtOH responses consistent with an exacerbation of the adolescent alcohol phenotype.

To test this hypothesis, early-adolescent male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed for a short duration to the general anesthetic isoflurane and tested on multiple EtOH-induced behaviors in mid-late adolescence or adulthood.

Adolescent rats exposed to isoflurane exhibited decreases in sensitivity to negative properties of EtOH such as its aversive, hypnotic, and socially suppressive effects, as well as increases in voluntary EtOH intake and cognitive impairment. Select behaviors were noted to persist into adulthood following adolescent isoflurane exposure. Similar exposure in adults had no effects on EtOH sensitivity.

This study demonstrates for the first time that early-adolescent isoflurane exposure alters EtOH sensitivity in a manner consistent with an exacerbation of adolescent-typical alcohol responding. These findings suggest that general anesthetic exposure during adolescence may be an environmental risk factor contributing to an enhanced susceptibility to developing AUDs in an already vulnerable population.