ORIGINAL RESEARCH

The effect of high concentrations of fentanyl on an isolated heart of rat

About authors

Research Institute of Hygiene, Occupational Pathology and Human Ecology of the Federal Medical Biological Agency, Leningrad region, Russia

Correspondence should be addressed: Olga V. Nechaykina
Zavodskaya, 6/2, k. 93, gp Kuzmolovsky, Kuzmolovskoye g. p., Vsevolozhsky r-n, Leningradskaya oblast, 188663, ur.liam@8722aglo

About paper

Author contributions: Nechaykina OV — study conceptualization and design, data collection, data processing, article authoring; Laptev DS — study conceptualization and design, data collection, data processing, article editing; Bobkov DV — data processing, article editing; Petunov SG — data processing and interpretation, general guidance; Radilov AD — data processing and interpretation.

Compliance with ethical standards: the study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Research Institute of Hygiene, Occupational Pathology and Human Ecology (Minutes #3 of July 21, 2022), and executed in compliance with the bioethics rules approved by the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and other Scientific Purposes. The animals were kept in accordance with GOST 33215-2014 Laboratory Animals Keeping Guidelines (edition of 2016).

Received: 2024-03-06 Accepted: 2024-06-08 Published online: 2024-06-26
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Synthetic short-acting opioids are commonly used in anesthesiology as painkillers because their effect is more pronounced compared to that of natural substances. However, they have a number of side effects that, when fentanyl is used in doses larger than therapeutic, can lead to a lethal outcome. This study aimed to assess the cardiotropic effects of high doses of fentanyl using a rat heart isolated in a Langendorff perfusion system. Parameters of the heart's contractile activity were recorded with the help of PowerLab Data acquisition system 8/30 (ADInstruments, USA) and processed in the LabChartProUpgrade 7.0 program. At the concentration of 3.7 × 10–6 M, which corresponds to the opioid content in blood after administration of a 5 ED50 dose, fentanyl caused the QT interval duration to grow by 22%, as registered on an ECG, and a 256% spike of T wave (compared to control; p < 0.05). At the concentration of 7.4 × 10–6 M (10 ED50), the drug decreased heart rate by 20.4% (p < 0.05) and triggered a coronary constrictor effect that raised the perfusion pressure by 18.6% (p < 0.05). Further increase of fentanyl concentration to 1.5 × 10–5 M (20 ED50) was accompanied by an 83.5% growth of the end diastolic pressure (p < 0.05). Administration of nalmefene, nonselective opioid receptor blocker, did not cancel the cardiovasotropic action of fentanyl. Thus, fentanyl has a dose-dependent cardiotoxic effect. Despite the drop in the registered values of isolated heart's parameters, the results of this experiment confirm that cardiac activity persists under the influence of high doses of the opioid.

Keywords: isolated heart, opioid analgesics, fentanyl

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