Change in Hemoglobin Levels due to Anesthesia in Mice: An Important Confounder in Studies on Hematopoietic Drugs

Abstract

Analgesic and anesthetic drugs may have an impact on the results achieved from animal experiments. In the study presented here, we try to enlighten whether anesthesia with fentanyl/fluniasone and midazolam (Hypnorm and Dormicum) has an influence on measurements of hemoglobin in mice. In a cross-over study, we have compared hemoglobin levels in two groups of mice: anesthetized versus non-anesthetized and found significant decrease in hemoglobin levels in the anesthetized group (p < 0.05) unrelated to which group received the anesthesia. The mean hemoglobin levels after intraperitoneal administration of Hypnorm and Dormicum was 8.7 mmol/L compared to mean hemoglobin 9.9 mmol/L before anesthesia (p < 0.001), and the decrease lasted for more than 30 min. These results show that anesthesia can be an important confounder in studies involving measurements of hemoglobin, and this should be taken into account when planning studies and analyzing data.

Calcium Electrotransfer for Termination of Transgene Expression in Muscle

“…At 4 hr, an initial increase in serum EPO levels was observed for both control groups (control and EPO). This increase is associated with hypoxia during the anesthesia, as has been reported previously (Gothelf et al, 2009).…”

Evaluation of Precision in Optoacoustic Tomography for Preclinical Imaging in Living Subjects

“…We observed a significant drift in the functional parameters SO 2 MSOT and THb over 90 min. It has been previously documented that anesthesia induces up to a 20% change in the mean hemoglobin concentration in the blood (26) and that isoflurane can also suppress the erythropoietin hypoxia response and cause vasodilation (27,28), which may in part account for the observed drift. The larger effect observed in the spleen may be due to the increased hemoglobin concentration of splenic blood, which would accentuate these effects (29).…”

Valuation of three different anaesthetic protocols on complete blood count and biochemical parameters on Wistar rats

“…However, it has been reported that injectable and volatile anaesthesia can alter haematocrit and haemoglobin values due to changes evoked on plasma volume and/or on circulating red cells (Wilson et al, 2004;Gothelf et al, 2009). RBCs are sequestered in the spleen and under circumstances of stress they may be released back into circulation (Gothelf et al, 2009). In everyday veterinary practice, when blood is collected (without anaesthesia) from otherwise healthy dogs and cats, higher haematocrit values are attributed to fear or excitement and a consequent splenic contraction (Bush, 1991).…”