Table 1.

Summary of Preclinical Studies Involving Dexmedetomidine and Their Clinical Implications

Experimental Model	Key Observations	Value in Clinical Application	Reference
Cecal ligation and puncture-induced lung injury in mice	Dexmedetomidine significant decreases pro-inflammatory mediators and markers of oxidative stress in the lung tissue	Dexmedetomidine as a promising protective agent in lung injury	[56]
Spatial learning and memory in neonatal rats	Neonatal injection of dexmedetomidine (20 µg/kg) enhances spatial learning and memory.	Dexmedetomidine as a neuroprotective agent in brain injury	[70]
Hippocampal neurogenesis in mice	Dexmedetomidine attenuates ethanol-mediated hippocampal neurogenesis and reverses induced-neuroinflammation	Dexmedetomidine could reverse neurotoxicity in the developing hippocampus and deficits in hippocampal neurogenesis.	[72]
Acute lung and kidney injuries in a rat model of intra-abdominal sepsis	Dexmedetomidine attenuates sepsis-induced lung and kidney injuries and apoptosis	This calls for the need for comparative studies to determine the effects of dexmedetomidine on organ functions in early human sepsis	[55]
Rat model of cervical spinal cord injury	Dexmedetomidine improves neurological outcomes and decreases tissue damage after spinal cord injury	Dexmedetomidine as a promising inhibitor of neuroinflammation	[59]
Acute kidney injury via ischemia-reperfusion in mice	Dexmedetomidine mitigates pathohistological changes and apoptosis in the lung via α2AR/PI3K/Akt pathway	This demonstrates a novel protective mechanism against remote lung injury, hence may be a promising therapeutic avenue in remote organ cross-talk	[73]
Cecal ligation and puncture-induced liver injury in mice	Dexmedetomidine improves the survival rate of septic mice at the early stage and ameliorated the pathology of sepsis-induced liver injury	Dexmedetomidine protects against liver injury by enhancing autophagy, which alleviates inflammatory responses	[61]
Cecal ligation and puncture-induced heart injury in mice	Dexmedetomidine attenuates sepsis‑induced heme oxygenase‑1 overexpression and reduces iron concentration and ferroptosis via enhancing glutathione peroxidase 4	Promising alleviation effect in sepsis‑induced myocardial cellular injury, hence good basis for clinical studies	[62]
Cecal ligation and puncture-induced sepsis in rats	Dexmedetomidine exhibits protective effects on the myocardium by the induction of myocardial autophagy and reduction of inflammation	These observations provide the foundation for further study and may serve as the basis for innovative therapeutic strategies against septic myocardial dysfunction.	[74]
Lung ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats	Dexmedetomidine attenuates lung ischemia-reperfusion injury by activating the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway at the transcriptional level	Potential application in human ischemia-reperfusion induced lung injury	[52]
Sedation requirements in an autistic rat model	Autistic rats showed significantly longer loss of righting reflex times and shorter return of righting reflex times than controls	This outcome supports the clinical observations of increased anesthetic sedative requirements in children with autism	[75]

Abbreviations: α2AR, alpha2-noradrenergic receptor; PI3K, phosphoinositide-3-kinase.