What is it about?
Anesthetics affect sexually dimorphic brain regions involved in sleep and arousal. Hormones can directly modulate activity patterns of these areas, but the effects of hormones on anesthetic sensitivity are not fully understood. In this study we show that the female brain in mice and humans is more resistant to inhaled anesthetics. Sex hormones play a large role in this difference in anesthetic sensitivity. Clinically used brain monitoring devices fail to show sex differences in anesthetic sensitivity, however we uncover that activity patterns of deep brain regions involved in sleep within the hypothalamus correlate with the observed sex differences under anesthesia.
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Why is it important?
Our findings provide a potential explanation as to why females patients experience a reduced likelihood of unconsciousness in the perioperative setting.
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This page is a summary of: Hormonal basis of sex differences in anesthetic sensitivity, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2312913120.
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