EFFECT OF PENTOBARBITAL AND GASEOUS ANESTHETICS ON RATS SELECTIVELY BRED FOR ETHANOL SENSITIVITY

Rats have been genetically selected to have a differential hypnotic re sponse to an acute injection of ethanol. These high alcohol sensitive (HAS) and low alcohol sensitive (LAS) rats were used to investigate co mmonalities of the mechanism of action of several gaseous anesthetics, pentobarbital and ethanol. Similar studies have been carried out exte nsively with mouse lines also differentially sensitive to ethanol (sho rt- and long-sleep mice). Like the mice, the rats are also differentia lly sensitive to the two gaseous anesthetics, enflurane and isoflurane . However, in contrast to results with these mice, we find that the HA S and LAS rats are differentially sensitive to halothane and pentobarb ital in the same direction as their sensitivity to ethanol. In other s tudies, the rats also have been found to be differentially sensitive t o phenobarbital as are SS and LS mice. These results show that, by the use of these anesthetics in combination with selectively bred rodent lines, many new opportunities for dissecting the molecular mechanisms of anesthetic agents present themselves.