Are the differential effects of chloral hydrate on hooded rats vs. albino rats due to pigmentation or strain differences?
Effects of chloral hydrate anesthesia on EEG power spectra and VEP components were examined as a function of both pigmentation and strain differences in rats. Ten albino Westenberg Long Evans rats (WLE A) were compared to ten pigmented Westenberg Long Evans rats (WLE P), and to ten Wistar albino (Wis A) rats. Albino rats required less chloral hydrate to reach a deep level of anesthesia than pigmented rats. Wistar rats remained anesthetized longer than WLE rats. During deep levels of anesthesia, the lowest EEG frequency band contained more power in Wistar rats than in WLE rats. During moderate levels of anesthesia, frequencies less than 4 Hz lost power while frequencies greater than 13 Hz gained across all rats. Wistar rats had more power in the frequencies less than 8 Hz than did WLE rats; pigmented rats had more power in the frequencies greater than 13 Hz than did albinos. VEP component latencies of pigmented rats were shorter than albinos. Component amplitudes were not significantly different between groups.
Sisson
D F
DF
Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Delaware, Newark 19716.
Siegel
J
J
Westenberg
I S
IS
D000758:Anesthesia; D000818:Animals; D001831:Body Temperature / Q000187:drug effects; D002697:Chloral Hydrate / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000187:drug effects; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D010858:Pigmentation / Q000502:physiology*; D011680:Pupil / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013045:Species Specificity
D002697:Chloral Hydrate