In article
<Pine.SUN.3.91.951015121116.16099A-100000 at arcturus.oac.uci.edu> Neal
Prakash, eamg061 at arcturus.oac.uci.edu writes:
>does anyone know the pharmocological mechanism of urethane anesthesia?
>i've looked in several pharm. books and tried some quick medline
searches
>to no avail.
Most general anesthetic actions involve potentiation of GABA-A
receptor-mediated synaptic inhibition, or in some instances direct
activation of GABA-A receptors by anesthetic molecules. Urethane
potentiates neuronal responses to puff applied GABA (Zimmerman et al,
JPET v270, p987) and IPSCs (Zimmerman and Harrison, Anesthesiology abstr.
I don't remember the citation). These effects occur at anesthetic
concentrations of urethane, and are not due to non-specific osmotic
effects.
-Matt Jones
