Multiple environments of fluorinated anesthetics in intact tissues observed with 19F NMR spectroscopy

The incorporation of two fluorine-containing general anesthetic agents, halothane and methoxyflurane, into erythrocytes (from three different species), rabbit muscle and rabbit nerve, was followed with 19F NMR spectroscopy. Two major findings emerged from these studies: (1) multiple environments indicative of domain structure in the membrane can be observed depending on the anesthetic and the tissue type; and (2) the 19F chemical shifts of a given anesthetic were characteristic for the tissue examined. Halothane showed a single resonance in erythrocytes and multiple resonances in muscle and nerve, while methoxyflurane showed multiple resonances in both muscle and erythrocytes. The range of the 19F chemical shifts for the multiple peaks was as great as 6 ppm.