Effect of orally taken propofol on sedation and anesthesia in mice

    WANG Huiª²Xia, XU Liª²Xian, MA Jiaª²Hai, ZHANG Hui, XU Ruiª²Fen, LI Yuan

    Department of Anesthesiology, College of Stomatology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi¬ðan 710033, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To investigate the sedative and anesthetic actions of orally taken propofol in mice. METHODS: Sixty healthy KUNª²MING mice weighing 18-22 g were randomly divided into two groups: (A) control group (n=10) and (B) experiment group (n=50). Group B was further divided into 5 subgroups with 10 animals (5 males, 5 females) in each subgroup. Different concentrations of propofol 20 ¦ÌL/g body mass were orally taken and the concentration ratio of the two neighboring subgroups was 1¡Ã1.2. Control group was given orally normal saline 20 ¦ÌL/g body mass. The behavior of mice and the autonomic activity time were observed. The interval of disappearance and recovery of the righting reflex of mice were recorded as sleeping time to evaluate the effect of orally taken propofol. The median effective dose 50 (ED50) was calculated. RESULTS: Orally taken propofol reduced the autonomic activity time and the frequency of lifting fore paws. The sleeping latent period of mice was (17.36¡À0.38) min, the duration of sleeping was (77.71¡À0.87) min and ED50 of orally taken propofol was 208.33 mg/kg. CONCLUSION: Orally taken propofol has sedative and (or) anesthetic effects, which may provide an effective general anesthesia. ......