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

Although sevoflurane is one of 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 kinds of biological abnormalities/changes and their levels in the host. 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.