2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Roles of Glial Cells in the Action of Inhalation Anesthetics

Research Project

Project/Area Number	22659282
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Anesthesiology/Resuscitation studies
Research Institution	Kyoto University
Principal Investigator	FUKUDA Kazuhiko 京都大学, 医学研究科, 教授 (90199224)
Project Period (FY)	2010 – 2011
Keywords	グリア / 麻酔薬 / モルヒネ / 耐性 / エリスロポイエチン
Research Abstract	First, involvement of glial cells in the analgesic action of opioids was tested. Analysis of knockout mice and mutant mice revealed that tolerance to opioid analgesics is induced by microglial activation by a mechanism which does not involve the toll-like receptor 4. Next, it was demonstrated that hypoxia-or acute anemia-induced erythropoietin expression in the brain is inhibited by a volatile anesthetic, isoflurane. This phenomenon is suggested to be caused by inhibition of hypoxia-inducible factor 2 activity by isoflurane.