A re-examination of physostigmine-induced cerebral protection in the hypoxic mouse. A critical assessment of the model.

Abstract

Using the hypoxic (FiO2 = 0.05) mouse model as originally described, the survival time following pretreatment with physostigmine was examined. The maximum increase in survival time was 87% following a physostigmine dose of 0.4 mg/kg. This increase was considerably less than that previously reported for this drug in a hypoxic mouse study wherein the standard method for exposing mice to hypoxia was altered. We speculate that this alteration in methodology resulted in small variations in FiO2 sufficient to account for the differences between these studies.