Mild hypothermia ameliorates anesthesia toxicity in the neonatal macaque brain

Sedatives and anesthetics can injure the developing brain. They cause apoptosis of neurons and oligodendrocytes, impair synaptic plasticity, inhibit neurogenesis and trigger long-term neurocognitive deficits. The projected vulnerable period in humans extends from the third trimester of pregnancy to the third year of life. Despite all concerns, there is no ethically and medically acceptable alternative to the use of sedatives and anesthetics for surgeries and painful interventions. Development of measures that prevent injury while allowing the medications to exert their desired actions has enormous translational value.Here we investigated protective potential of hypothermia against histological toxicity of the anesthetic sevoflurane in the developing nonhuman primate brain.Neonatal rhesus monkeys underwent sevoflurane anesthesia over 5 h. Body temperature was regulated in the normothermic (>36.5 °C), mild hypothermic (35–36.5 °C) and moderately hypothermic (