Dopamine transporter in the ventral tegmental area modulates recovery from propofol anesthesia in rats.

Objective(s): To investigate the role of the dopamine transporter (DAT) in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in the recovery from propofol anesthesia in rats.

Materials And Methods: A total of 150 Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly split into a normal control group (NC), saline group (S), propofol anesthesia group (P), adeno-associated viral-NC-mCherry (AAV-NC) group, and AAV-DAT-RNAi (DAT-RNAi) group (n = 30 per group). In rats in the AAV intervention group, AAV was injected into the VTA nucleus via a stereotaxer.