Anesthesiology
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General anesthetics inhibit evoked release of classic neurotransmitters. However, their actions on neuropeptide release in the central nervous system have not been well characterized. ⋯ Clinically relevant concentrations of several classes of general anesthetics did not affect basal, KCl-evoked, or veratridine-evoked CCK8s release from isolated rat cortical nerve terminals. This is in contrast to the demonstrable effects of certain general anesthetics on the release of amino acid and catecholamine transmitters. These transmitter-specific presynaptic effects of general anesthetics suggest that anesthetic-sensitive presynaptic targets are not common to all transmitter classes.