Similarity and dissimilarity in alteration of gene expression profile associated with inhalational anesthesia between sevoflurane and desflurane

Although sevoflurane is the most commonly used inhalational anesthetic agent, the popularity of desflurane is increasing to a similar level. The main beneficial property of desflurane is the relatively fast emergence of the patient from the anesthetic state after halting its supply compared with anesthesia using other anesthetic agents. However, there has been no comprehensive comparison of the effects of these two anesthetic agents on alterations in liver gene expression profiles in animals, including humans, to assess the levels of hepatotoxicity that is induced at least in some extent by inhalational anesthesia. Thus, we compared alterations in the global gene expression profiles in the livers of rats subjected to inhalational anesthesia by sevoflurane or desflurane by a next-generation sequencing method. Our data revealed that both anesthetic agents significantly activated a similar set of genes including those related to drug metabolism and circadian rhythm. Furthermore, many genes downregulated by sevoflurane were also downregulated by desflurane. However, many of the genes related to the cholesterol biosynthetic process were specifically repressed by sevoflurane, but not by desflurane.