lance at neuro.pharmacology.ubc.ca (Lance Corey) wrote:
>f628 at zena.re.uokhsc.edu (Larry P. Gonzalez) wrote:
>>I need some info about the free-acid form of pentobarbital.
>>We have been using sodium pentobarbital for anesthesia in rats, but
>>recently ran out. Since we had some of the free-acid form in the lab,
>>I tried substituting that for the salt, adjusting for differences in
>>molecular weight. The acid is not soluble in water, but will readily
>>dissolve in 95-100% ethanol. Therefore, I administered about
>>38mg/kg of the free-acid dissolved in ethanol to 300g rats. This
>>produced a solid level of anesthesia and animals recovered nicely, and
>>they appeared healthy initially. However, all of the animals
>>receiving this preparation have died within 2 to 4 days of
>>administration.
>>Can anyone shed some light on what is going on?
>>Thanks.
>I can't tell you why the rats died, but you should be able to dissolve
>the free acid in an equal molar amount of sodium hydroxide in water.
>You'll end up with water and sodium pentabarbital.
> Lance Corey
> Dept. Pharmacology & Therapeutics
> University of British Columbia
What was the volume of ethanol injected (I.P.?? ?) per rat ?
Volumes > 300 uL are toxic, try DMSO as a solvent instead.
Michael-Robin Witt
Dep. Biochemistry
SHH
Roskilde, Denmark
