Investigation Of Potassium Channels On The Larval Cerebral Neurons Of Drosophila Melanogaster With Different Sensitivity To Volatile Anesthetics

Introduction: The volatile anesthetics have been widely used in clinical practice to produce a stable state of general anesthesia because of its rapid onset and washout. Despite 160 years of use and substantial scientific investigation, the mechanism by which they produce general anesthesia remains elusive. K~+ channels play very important roles in the modulation of neuronal excitability. In this study, Drosophila was applied as animal model to investigate K~+ channels targets for volatile anesthetics with whole-cell voltage-clamp technique. Methods: Three strains of Drosophila with high (S), normal (H) and low (R) sensitivity to sevoflurane were developed by 33 generations' screening selection. Cerebral neurons from the three strains of late third instar larvae of Drosophila were obtained by acutely enzymatic digestion and incubation in fetal bovine serum. The dissociated neurons were characterized by morphological observation and electrophysiological properties of K~+ channels investigated using whole-cell voltage-clamp recording technique. Results: Cerebral neurons from three strains of late third instar larvae were divided into three categories according to size and morphology. The proportions of three types of cerebral neurons...