•  
  •  
 

ELAIA

Abstract

Model organisms are widely used in research, especially in the context of complex situations. One model organism that has been widely used is the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster (D. mel). D. mel are most commonly used in the context of genetics, but they have also been widely used in research focusing on general anesthetics. One value that has not been measured in D. mel, however, as it relates to general anesthetics, is the decrement times.

Flies were exposed to 40 μL of the anesthetic isoflurane or sevoflurane in a centrifuge tube for 10 minutes, after which the flies were allowed to recover for various amounts of time. The anesthetic was then extracted using dichloromethane (DCM) and enflurane was added as an internal standard.

The decrement times of male flies with isoflurane were found to be approximately 30 seconds for the 50% decrement, two minutes for the 80%, and three minutes for the 90% decrement. For female flies the values found with isoflurane were found to be approximately 30 seconds for the 50% decrement and four minutes for the 80% decrement. The values found for the 50% decrement time of sevoflurane were about five minutes for the female flies and two minutes for the male flies, but the values found in female flies with sevoflurane were not consistent.

Though the data with sevoflurane were inconsistent, those collected with isoflurane give valuable insight into general anesthetics. This information can be used in future work involving drosophila flies and anesthetics in order to gain a deeper understanding of how inhalational anesthetics work

Download

Share

COinS