Chloralose/ketamine anaesthesia preserves a form of postprandial sodium chloride balance in Wistar rats

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Abstract
Studies on the mechanisms underlying Na balance in anaesthetized rats are complicated by the fact that the most frequently used barbiturate anaesthetics attenuate or abolish this phenomenon. In the present study we show that a combination of nonbarbiturate anaesthetics: chloralose (140 mg/kg i.v.) and ketamine (30 mg/kg i.m.), preserve the ability of rats to excrete intragastrically applied NaCl loads dose dependently. Thus rats anaesthetized with this regime excreted 86–102% of intragastrically applied NaCl whereas rats anaesthetized with thiobutabarbitone sodium (Inactin) excreted only 20–28%. We conclude that chloralose/ketamine anaesthesia is suitable for studies on Na balance mechanisms.