Glucose turnover in normal and diabetic rats under anesthesia.

This report describes the effects of four anesthetic agents on glucose metabolism in rats. Ketamine and nubain drastically increased plasma glucose levels in normal rats. They also caused a high death rate as compared to nembutal and seconal and, therefore, were not useful for studies of glucose kinetics. Although both nembutal and seconal had a moderate effect on glucose metabolism, seconal was preferred for epinephrine studies. As this agent displayed a moderate effect on glucose kinetics, it was also deemed suitable for use in the studies of glucose kinetics in diabetic rat models. This study indicates that glucose and probably fat metabolism under anesthesia require considerable further research.