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Background: Ethanol and anesthetic drugs trigger neuro-apoptosis in the developing mouse brain. Recently, it was found that ethanol-induced neuroapoptosis is preceded by suppressed phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK), and lithium counteracts both the phosphorylated ERK suppressant action and ethanol-induced neuroapoptosis. The current study was undertaken to address the following questions.(1) Do ketamine and propofol mimic ethanol in suppressing ERK phosphorylation?(2) If they do, does lithium prevent this suppressant action and also prevent these anesthetic drugs from triggering neuroapoptosis?

Method: Postnatal day 5 mice were treated with propofol, ketamine, lithium, a combination of propofol or ketamine with lithium or saline, and their brains were prepared for Western blot analysis or histology. For Western blot, cytosolic lysates of caudate putamen were …