Barbiturates increase the rate of voltage‐dependent inactivation of the calcium current in snail neurones

Nishi, Katsuhide; Oyama, Yasuo

doi:10.1111/j.1476-5381.1983.tb10068.x

Cited by 20 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…It has been suggested that the sodium and calcium currents underlying the spikes are equally sensitive to pentobarbital ( Goldring and Blaustein, 1982 ) in the giant R2 neuron of Aplysia. Thiopentone, pentobarbitone, phenobarbitone and barbitone, all accelerated the decay phase of the I Ca in Helix aspersa neurons ( Nishi and Oyama, 1983a ), and pentobarbitone also inhibited its maximum peak amplitude ( Nishi and Oyama, 1983b ). In Aplysia neurons in excised ganglia, both pentobarbital and phenobarbital enhanced spike frequency adaptation via a slowly developing outward current unique to neurons of this type ( Cote et al, 1978 ; Zbicz and Wilson, 1981 ) and in other neurons they depressed chloride-dependent inhibitory responses to either iontophoretically applied acetylcholine or GABA ( Cote and Wilson, 1980 ) and attenuated excitatory responses while potassium-dependent inhibitory responses were minimally affected.…”

Section: Actions Of Clinical Anesthetics On Gastropod Molluscsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sense and Insensibility – An Appraisal of the Effects of Clinical Anesthetics on Gastropod and Cephalopod Molluscs as a Step to Improved Welfare of Cephalopods

et al. 2018

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Recent progress in animal welfare legislation stresses the need to treat cephalopod molluscs, such as Octopus vulgaris, humanely, to have regard for their wellbeing and to reduce their pain and suffering resulting from experimental procedures. Thus, appropriate measures for their sedation and analgesia are being introduced. Clinical anesthetics are renowned for their ability to produce unconsciousness in vertebrate species, but their exact mechanisms of action still elude investigators. In vertebrates it can prove difficult to specify the differences of response of particular neuron types given the multiplicity of neurons in the CNS. However, gastropod molluscs such as Aplysia, Lymnaea, or Helix, with their large uniquely identifiable nerve cells, make studies on the cellular, subcellular, network and behavioral actions of anesthetics much more feasible, particularly as identified cells may also be studied in culture, isolated from the rest of the nervous system. To date, the sorts of study outlined above have never been performed on cephalopods in the same way as on gastropods. However, criteria previously applied to gastropods and vertebrates have proved successful in developing a method for humanely anesthetizing Octopus with clinical doses of isoflurane, i.e., changes in respiratory rate, color pattern and withdrawal responses. However, in the long term, further refinements will be needed, including recordings from the CNS of intact animals in the presence of a variety of different anesthetic agents and their adjuvants. Clues as to their likely responsiveness to other appropriate anesthetic agents and muscle relaxants can be gained from background studies on gastropods such as Lymnaea, given their evolutionary history.

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