• Masashi Ishikawa, Shunsuke Tanaka, Masae Arai, Yuuki Genda, and Atsuhiro Sakamoto.
• Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan. masashi-i@nms.ac.jp
• Anesthesiology. 2012 Dec 1;117(6):1245-52.

BackgroundIn previous studies, the authors showed that anesthetics affect the expression ratios of many genes in rat liver. microRNAs (miRNA) negatively regulate more than 30% of genes in cells, and control cell proliferation, inflammation, and metabolism. The authors hypothesized that anesthetics influence miRNA expression in the liver, and performed miRNA screening tests using TaqMan low-density arrays.MethodsRats were randomly assigned to the 2.4% sevoflurane group, the 600 µg·kg⁻¹·min⁻¹ propofol group, and the control group without anesthetics. Rats were allowed to breathe spontaneously under anesthesia for 6 h. The miRNA expression profile of the liver was analyzed, and 15 representative miRNAs were validated by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction.ResultsTaqMan low-density arrays analysis showed 46 miRNAs that were differentially expressed by anesthetics. After sevoflurane treatment, 16 miRNAs were significantly increased and 11 were significantly decreased compared with controls, whereas after propofol treatment, 31 miRNAs were increased and 8 were decreased. Twenty expressed miRNAs were common to both anesthetics, whereas three miRNAs were differentially expressed. Bland-Altman analysis was performed across the validations to compare the fold changes measured by both methods, and they were equivalent (mean difference=0.01, 95% CI=-0.26 to 0.27). This showed that the TaqMan low-density arrays results are accurate and can be confirmed using an independent experimental approach.ConclusionThe results showed that anesthetics cause many miRNA expression changes, and the miRNA expression pattern was particular for each anesthetic. Further studies are needed to determine the functional consequence of miRNA modulation by anesthetics.

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