Background: Considerable evidence suggests that nitric oxide plays a role in synaptic transmission in the central and peripheral nervous system. Nonselective inhibition of nitric oxide synthase by nitroG-L-arginine methylester (L-NAME) reduces the minimum alveolar concentration of halothane anesthesia. The effects of selective neuronal nitric oxide synthase inhibition on the anesthetic requirements in mice congenitally deficient in neuronal nitric oxide synthase (knockout mice) were examined.
Methods: Isoflurane minimum alveolar concentration and righting reflex ED50 (RRED50) were determined in knockout and wild-type mice. Subsequently, the effects of intraperitoneal L-NAME on minimum alveolar concentration and RRED50 of knockout and wild-type mice were examined. In a separate experiment, the effects of week-long administration of L-NAME were examined in wild-type mice. Isoflurane minimum alveolar concentration and RRED50 were measured on the 8th day and were repeated after an acute intraperitoneal dose of L-NAME.
Results: Targeted disruption of the neuronal nitric oxide synthase gene did not modify isoflurane minimum alveolar concentration and RRED50 of knockout mice. Acute intraperitoneal L-NAME decreased the minimum alveolar concentration and RRED50 of wild-type but did not alter those values in knockout mice. The wild-type mice, when given L-NAME for a week, showed a minimum alveolar concentration and RRED50 identical to that of untreated wild-type mice.
Conclusions: Although acute nonselective inhibition of nitric oxide synthase reduces the anesthetic requirements of wild-type mice, a chronic congenital deficiency of neuronal nitric oxide synthase or a week of L-NAME treatment of wild-type mice does not produce a state of greater sensitivity to the effects of isoflurane anesthesia.