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Dopaminergic Neurons in the Ventral Tegmental–Prelimbic Pathway Promote the Emergence of Rats from Sevoflurane Anesthesia

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Abstract

Dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) play an important role in cognition, emergence from anesthesia, reward, and aversion, and their projection to the cortex is a crucial part of the "bottom-up" ascending activating system. The prelimbic cortex (PrL) is one of the important projection regions of the VTA. However, the roles of dopaminergic neurons in the VTA and the VTADA–PrL pathway under sevoflurane anesthesia in rats remain unclear. In this study, we found that intraperitoneal injection and local microinjection of a dopamine D1 receptor agonist (Chloro-APB) into the PrL had an emergence-promoting effect on sevoflurane anesthesia in rats, while injection of a dopamine D1 receptor antagonist (SCH23390) deepened anesthesia. The results of chemogenetics combined with microinjection and optogenetics showed that activating the VTADA–PrL pathway prolonged the induction time and shortened the emergence time of anesthesia. These results demonstrate that the dopaminergic system in the VTA has an emergence-promoting effect and that the bottom-up VTADA–PrL pathway facilitates emergence from sevoflurane anesthesia.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81801366 and 82001453) and the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC2001901).

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Author notes

  1. Yanping Song, Ruitong Chu and Fuyang Cao have contributed equally to the paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anesthesia and Operation Center, The First Medical Center of Chinese, PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, China

    Yanping Song, Yanhong Liu, Jiangbei Cao, Yongxin Guo, Weidong Mi & Li Tong

  2. Department of Anesthesia, Second Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University, Shanghai, 200003, China

    Ruitong Chu

  3. Chinese PLA Medical School, Beijing, 100853, China

    Yanping Song

  4. Department of Anesthesia, The Sixth Medical Center of Chinese, PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100048, China

    Fuyang Cao

  5. Department of Anesthesia, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, 410008, China

    Yanfeng Wang

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  1. Yanping Song
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Correspondence to Yongxin Guo, Weidong Mi or Li Tong.

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Song, Y., Chu, R., Cao, F. et al. Dopaminergic Neurons in the Ventral Tegmental–Prelimbic Pathway Promote the Emergence of Rats from Sevoflurane Anesthesia. Neurosci. Bull. 38, 417–428 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-021-00809-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-021-00809-2

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