Fig. 3: Dynamic mechanical analysis of cells exposed to isoflurane.

Neurons were exposed to a flow of 1% anaesthetic isoflurane gas (red asterisk), a flow of compressed air (air control, black dots), or no gas flow (no flow control, grey dots). Dynamic mechanical analysis was performed on individual cells before gas flow (Before), at 15 min intervals during gas exposure (blue shading, 15 min During, 30 min During and 45 min During), and at specific time points after gas exposure (green shading, 30 min After and 45 min After). The mean storage modulus \({E}^{{\prime} }\) (Pa), loss modulus \({E}^{{\prime\prime} }\) (Pa), and loss tangent \(\tan \delta ={E}^{{\prime\prime} }/{E}^{{\prime} }\) throughout the course of the experiment are shown in a–c, respectively. Error bars represent the standard error. Unfilled points represent individual values of: five isoflurane cells (red squares), five air control cells (black circles) and three no flow control cells (grey triangles). Significant differences between isoflurane and both control treatments, calculated by post hoc comparisons using Tukey’s honest difference criterion (all p-values and test details are provided in Supplementary Table S12), are indicated by a single black asterisk *p < 0.05, or three black asterisk ***p < 0.0001.