Fig. 6. Sevoflurane-induced brain cell death. Cell death in the brain of 7-day old rats (n = 8) treated with 4 h of sevoflurane at 1 minimum alveolar concentration, as assessed by FluoroJade (FJ) staining 16 h after anesthesia. Photomicrograph (4× objective) of sporadic occurrence of FJ+ cells in the thalamus of sham anesthetized animals (n = 8) (A ). Photomicrographs of FJ+ cells in the thalamus (B ) (4× with 20× inset) and the septal hippocampal nucleus (C ) (4× with 20× inset) after sevoflurane anesthesia. In contrast, no significant increase in FJ stained cells can be found in the hippocampus (D ) or the prefrontal cortex (E ) of sevoflurane-treated animals. All regions with sevoflurane-induced cell death (F ) and some regions not affected by sevoflurane-induced cell death are important in the behavioral outcome affected by sevoflurane.42,50Scale bar: 100 μm. **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. CA = cornu ammonis; DG = dentate gyrus; mPFC = medial prefrontal cortex; SHN = septal hippocampal nucleus.