Excitatory Amino Acids

A role for excitatory amino acids in anesthesia is indicated by the depression in glutamate-induced neurotransmission by inhaled anesthetics and the decreased requirements for volatile anesthetics after administering inhibitors of excitatory amino acid transmission.^[72] Anesthesia does not result from a depletion of excitatory amino acids because rats anesthetized with halothane have an increased whole-brain content of aspartate and glutamate. ^[67] Volatile anesthetics inhibit postsynaptic excitatory transmission and depress release of excitatory amino acids from nerve terminals. ^{[45] [73]}