The effects of repeated doses of xylazine-ketamine and medetomidineketamine anesthesia on DNA damage in the liver and kidney

Purpose:  This study evaluated the DNA damage caused by repeated doses of xylazine-ketamine and medetomidine-ketamine anesthesia in the liver and kidneys.

Methods:  In this study, 60 rats were used. The rats were divided into group 1 (xylazine-ketamine), and group 2 (medetomidine-ketamine), and these anesthetic combinations were administered to the rats at repeated doses with 30-min intervals. The effects of these anesthetic agents on the tumor necrosis factor-alpha gene for DNA damage were investigated.

Results:  According to the gene expression results, it was observed that a single dose of xylazine-ketamine was 2.9-fold expressed, while first and second repeat doses did not show significant changes in expression levels. However, in the case of the third repetition, it was observed to be 3.8-fold overexpressed. In the case of medetomidine-ketamine administration, it was observed that a single-dose application resulted in a 1.04-fold expression, while the first and the third repeat doses showed a significant down expression. The samples from the second repeat dose administration group were found to have insignificant levels of expression.

Conclusions:  This study can contribute to understanding the safe anesthetic combination in research and operations in which xylazine-ketamine and medetomidine-ketamine combinations are used.

Key words
Anesthesia; DNA Damage; Gene Expression; Repeated Dose; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha