Experimental Study on the Effect of Ketamine on Learning and Memory Function of Sprague-Dawley Rat's Offspring

Objective To study the effects of general anesthesia with ketamine during pregnancy on the learning and memory function of Sprague-Dawley rat offspring.Methods Thirty pregnant Sprague-Dawley(SD)rats were randomly divided into ketamine group and control group,with fifteen rats in each group.Ketamine was injected through tail vein for 2 hours in the rats in ketmine group,and the rats in control group received the same volume of physiological saline solution only.The learning and memory functions of the offspring rats were tested by Morris water maze test at postnatal days 20 and 30,respectively.The morphological changes of offspring rat hippocampus tissue were analyzed under electrical microscope.Results The escape latency of the offspring rats in ketamine group was longer than that in the control group at postnatal days 20 and 30,and the escape latency in the second Morris water maze test was significantly longer in comparison with the control group at postnatal days 30(P0.05).The hippocampal neurons of the offspring rats in ketmine group were markedly damaged.Conclusion General anesthesia with ketamine during gestationperiod could cause learning and memory functional injury in the offspring rats through a mechanism involving ketamine-induced damage in offspring rat hippocampal neurons.