The effects of sevolflurane, isoflurane and propofol on glucose utilization by wild type Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Diabetes mellitus is on the rise in the United States and patients with this disease are expected to be frequently encountered in the operating room resulting in increased morbidity and mortality. Surgery evokes a stress response that leads to the release of endogenous catecholamines and an increase in cortisol and other pituitary hormone levels. This response ultimately leads to acute hyperglycemia preoperatively and may complicate the surgical course of patients, especially those who suffer from diabetes. In the clinical setting, anesthesia providers usually use a combination of drugs to provide a balanced anesthesia. Often volatile anesthetics and intravascular anesthetic agents are used intraoperatively to induce and maintain anesthesia. Many studies had suggested a correlation between hyperglycemia and the use of volatile anesthetics in diabetic as well as non-diabetic patients. Acute hyperglycemia can be detrimental to the surgical patient. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of isoflurane, sevoflurane, and propofol on the glucose utilization by wild type Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Glucose concentration and utilization by wild type yeast in presence of each of sevoflurane, isoflurane, and propofol as well as in the presence of combined treatments of isoflurane and propofol, and sevoflurane and propofol was analyzed. Statistical analysis showed that glucose utilization by wild type yeast was significantly decreased when combined treatments were used. However, no difference was found in glucose utilization between yeast cells treated with propofol-sevoflurane and those treated with propofol-isoflurane combinations. Application of sevoflurane alone or propofol alone consistently yielded no significant difference in glucose utilization. Individual experiments with 0.1% isoflurane demonstrated variable results, however, a statistical analysis of the combined data revealed a significant decrease in glucose utilization. A major limitation of this study is the short time frame allocated for its completion. Furthermore, the yeast model chosen in this study is unicellular and unable to mimic the complexity of the human body. Therefore, extrapolation of the observed effects to human subjects is limited. Further experiments studying the effects of volatile agents and propofol are needed.;Key Words: isoflurane, sevoflurane, propofol, Saccharomyces cerevisiae , diabetes.