Animals
Sixty-four neonatal healthy SD rats were randomly divided into experimental group (n=32) and control group (n=32) and kept in the experimental animal center of Zunyi medical University. All procedures were performed in accordance with the regulations of the Animal Management Regulations and Administrative Measures on Experimental Animal. Three life stages were adopted in this study: neonatal period (P0-P21), childhood (P22-P60) and adulthood (2-20 month).
Sevoflurane anesthesia treatment
All SD rats were placed in a clear acrylic box connected to the anesthesia machine or the gas monitor. The experimental group (n=32) was exposed to 2 L/min, 2.6% sevoflurane (Southern Shandong Bert Pharmaceutical company, Shandong, China) for 2 h, at P7, P14 and P21; the control group (n=32) was exposed to the carrier gas (1 L/min O2 + 1 L/min Air, 2 h) at the same periods (Fig. 1).
Morris Water Maze (MWM) test
To investigate the spatial learning and memory recall performance in the development stage of childhood, both experimental group and control group received seven-days MWM test at childhood (P32-37) and adulthood (P92-97), respectively. Each time 16 rats from each group were randomly selected to receive the MWM test in each group, and they only received the MWM test once (Fig. 1).
The Morris water maze consisted of a round pool (120 cm in diameter, 60 cm in height) containing a black platform (20 cm in diameter, 30 cm in height) in the center of the southeast quadrant and an image acquisition system. The pool was divided into four quadrants named I, II, III and IV at equal distances to the edge of the pool. The water was made opaque with 600 g milk powder. The water temperature was maintained at 25 ± 1℃ and the illumination was kept constant. The platform was submerged 1.4 cm below the water surface and could not be seen by the rats. The test was managed by an operator blinded to the group conditions. In each acquisition trial, animals were placed in the pool facing the wall from a selected quadrant (I, II, III and IV). The test included a directional navigation test and a probe test of spatial exploration, performed over 6 days. During the first 5 days of spatial acquisition phase, rats were trained with 4 trials per day with 5 min intervals. Rats were allowed to search for platform for 90 s and to remain on it for 30 s once they found it. If a rat failed to find the platform within 90 s, the rat would be guided gently to the platform by the experimenter and allowed to stay on it for 30 s. The swimming trial was monitored by a video-tracking system (Chengdu Thai Union Technology co., Chengdu, China). After 5 days of training, rats were returned to the pool for a probe trial. The platform was removed from the pool. The rats were placed in any quadrant and allowed to swim freely for 90 s. The previous platform area crossing times and the times the rats stayed in the target quadrant within 90 s were recorded. After the trial, each rat was dried and then returned to the experimental animal center.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
After MWM tests, the brain volumes of SD rats were scanned immediately (at P37 and P97, respectively) by a 3.0-T MRI scanner (GE Aircraft Engines Group, American) with a dedicated coil (4CH/5 cm, Suzhou Zhongzhi Medical Technology, Suzhou, China) at the radiology department of Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical College. Rats received intraperitoneal injections of 30 ml/kg 1% sodium pentobarbital at P37 or P97. The acquisition of the MRI data was identical in transverse, coronal, and sagittal planes for all rats, and the head position was corrected for bilateral symmetry using BRAVO sequences with 3T MR imaging. T2-weighted BRAVO sequence parameters were the following: TR (time of repeat) 12.9 ms, TE (time of echo) 5.1 ms, TI (time of inverse) 450 ms, flip angle 12°, matrix 224 × 192 pixels, slice thickness 0.3 mm (no interslice gap), voxel size 0.3 × 0.3 × 0.3 mm, FOV (field of view) 25 mm2 (5 ×5 mm), bandwidth 19.2 kHz. Following experiment was conducted after the rat naturally wakes up.
The volumes of brain and hippocampus
The visual assessment method is an anatomy-based volumetric method used to measure the brain volume (BV), left hippocampal volumes (LHV), right hippocampal volumes (RHV), brain length (BL), left hippocampal length (LHL), right hippocampal length (RHL), brain width (BW), left hippocampal width (LHW) and right hippocampal width (RHW). The ratios of the bilateral hippocampal volume and the BV (LHV/BV and RHV/BV) were also calculated. Processing the scanned images at the post processing workstation at the GE ADW4.6 and then the scanned images were analyzed by MIP system, which could simultaneously display three different planes (sagittal plane, coronal plane and cross-section) of the same structure, depict the border of brain and hippocampus on coronal plane layer by layer and finally automatically calculate and display indicators such as the volume of the brain or hippocampus. All volumes were measured three times and averaged to increase its reliability.
Statistical analysis
Statistical analyses were performed by GraphPad Prism 5 (GraphPad Software, San Diego, CA). All data was given as means ± SE. Student’s T-test was used for single comparisons. Two-way ANOVA was used for analyzing statistic difference of learning curves (based on escape latency) among rats in different groups in the MWM. P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.