Anesthesia by n-alkanes not consistent with the Meyer-Overton hypothesis: determinations of the solubilities of alkanes in saline and various lipids.
Because deviations from the Meyer-Overton rule may provide insights into the attributes of the anesthetic site of action, we characterized the solubility of the n-alkanes in various hydrophobic solvents (n-tetradecane, olive oil, n-octanol, and lecithin) as well as saline using variations on standard techniques. Increasing alkane chain length correlated with a decrease in solubility in saline and an increase in solubility in the hydrophobic solvents. The product of solubility in the hydrophobic solvents x the partial pressure (in atmospheres) required to produce anesthesia (i.e., the Meyer-Overton rule) did not produce a constant for any one of these solvents. The means and standard deviations for the products were: tetradecane, 65 +/- 103; olive oil, 33 +/- 63; n-octanol, 64 +/- 129; and lecithin, 16 +/- 26. Thus, our data suggest that the n-alkanes (especially those longer than n-heptane) do not follow the Meyer-Overton rule.
Taheri
S
S
Department of Anesthesia, University of California, San Francisco 94143-0464.
Laster
M J
MJ
Liu
J
J
Eger
E I
EI
Halsey
M J
MJ
Koblin
D D
DD
D000473:Alkanes / Q000737:chemistry*; D000758:Anesthesia; D000069463:Olive Oil; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines / Q000737:chemistry; D010938:Plant Oils; D012965:Sodium Chloride; D012995:Solubility; D012997:Solvents; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
D000473:Alkanes; D000069463:Olive Oil; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines; D010938:Plant Oils; D012997:Solvents; D012965:Sodium Chloride