Abstract
The swimming movement of artemia salina in the artificial sea water was measured by using the video camera system in the absence and the presence of anesthetics, i.e. enfiurane, halothane, and isofiurane. The movement of artemia looked random at a glance but the obtained distribution curve for the swimming speed was skewed toward the high speed side somewhat resembling a Maxwellian distribution curve seen in the statistics of ideal gases. When anesthetics were added, the distribution curve became sharpened and shifted to the low speed side, which is similar to a behavior of ideal gasses when they are cooled down. The mean swimming-speed was decreased eventually leading to an irreversible death with increasing the anesthetic dose. The activity was analyzed by using the hydrodynamic equation. The ED50, which is a dose that causes a 50% reduction in the activity, of all anesthetics used in this study was quite similar to the MAC values for human. It was also suggested that an interaction between anesthetics and artemia was highly cooperative since the large Hill coefficients were obtained for all three anesthetics used.
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Takasaki, M., Tatara, T., Suezaki, Y. et al. Effect of inhalation anesthetics on swimming activity of artemia salina. J Anesth 5, 287–293 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/s0054010050287
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s0054010050287