Organotypic cultures of spinal cord ventral horn are valuable tools for investigating immobility-related mechanisms in vitro.

摘要

To the Editor:Using decerebrated rats, Kungys et al.identified the ventral horn of the spinal cord as the pivotal region within the spinal cord where propofol induces immobility. Their finding that the effects of propofol but not isoflurane were antagonized by picrotoxin indicates that only propofol acts predominantly via GABA(A) receptors. In the discussion, Kungys et al. argue that spinal slice cultures, which have been used in our work, are not well suited for the study of anesthetic mechanisms because of artificial receptor expression during ex vivo development.