Effect of propofol and ketamine anesthesia on cognitive function and immune function in young rats.

Objective: To investigate the effects of propofol and ketamine on the cognitive function and immune function in young rats.

Method: A total of 80 young rats were randomly divided into four groups: Control group, ketamine group (experimental group A), propofol group (experimental group B), ketamine and propofol group (experimental group C). All rats had continuous injection for three times, serum IL-2, IL-4 and IL-10 and whole brain IL-1β level, hippocampal neuronal apoptosis level were measured. The cognitive ability in rats was tested by water maze.

Results: Water maze test showed on the 1st d, the maze test latency of the control group, the experimental group B and the experimental group C water were decreased gradually; Compared with the control group after 3 days, the latency of the experimental group A, experimental group B and experimental group C were all decreased, the crossing circle times were also reduced. Hippocampal neuron apoptosis were (2.3 ± 1.7)%, (14.7 ± 6.9)%, (4.2 ± 3.3)%, (10.2 ± 4.8)% in control group, experimental group A, experimental group B and experimental group C, respectively. The neurons apoptosis of experimental group A was significantly increased. The serum IL-4 and IL-10 of the experimental group A, experimental group B and experimental group C after anesthesia were significantly higher than the control group. The whole brain IL-1β of the experimental group A, experimental group B and experimental group C were significantly lower than the control group.

Conclusions: Propofol can reduce anesthesia effect of ketamine on the cognitive function and immune function in the young rats.