coriaria-lactone and Status-Epilepticus

To investigate the antiepileptic and protective effects of intravenous levetiracetam (iv LEV) in the rhesus monkey model of acute status epilepticus (SE).. Thirty minutes before intraperitoneal induction of SE by Coriaria lactone (CL), rhesus monkeys were treated with LEV (15 or 150 mg/kg) delivered intravenously as a single bolus. CL dose and epileptic behavior were recorded. Electroencephalography (EEG) was performed before and during the experiment. All rhesus monkeys were killed after 1-month video monitoring and processed for pathological investigation of neuronal injury, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling (TUNEL) staining, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) staining.. No animal exhibited spontaneous seizures during 1-month video monitoring. Development of acute SE was significantly inhibited in the group given 150 mg/kg LEV, compared with controls and the 15 mg/kg LEV group. Delayed latency, reduction of SE duration, decreased cumulative time of tonic convulsions, slight severity of SE, and a high CL induction dose were observed in the high LEV dose group (p<0.05). The EEG showed less frequent epileptic discharges in the group administered with 150 mg/kg LEV. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, ultrastructural examination, TUNEL and GFAP staining revealed serious damage, including neuron loss, swollen mitochondrion, and strong positivity for TUNEL in the hippocampus and thalamus of controls, whereas moderate damage in the group administered with 15 mg/kg LEV, and very mild damage in the 150 mg/kg LEV group. Gliosis was found in the hippocampus of controls, not in the LEV groups and normal rhesus monkey.. The study supports the antiepileptic and protective effect of pretreatment with intravenous LEV in rhesus monkey model with SE.

Topics: Administration, Intravenous; Animals; Anticonvulsants; Disease Models, Animal; Humans; Lactones; Levetiracetam; Macaca mulatta; Male; Neurons; Piracetam; Status Epilepticus

Neurophysiological, biochemical and anatomical evidence implicates the thalamus as playing a role in epileptic seizures. Until recently, however, longitudinal characterization of in vivo thalamus dynamics had not been reported. In this study, we investigated the metabolism in the thalamus to identify the changes that occur following Coriaria lactone (CL)-induced status epilepticus (SE) and to observe whether the epileptiform discharges could present a difference between the left and right thalami. Five rhesus monkeys underwent whole-brain MRI and single-voxel MRS on a Siemens Trio Tim 3-T MR scanner with a 12-channel head coil. Spectra were processed using LCModel. Scans were performed in five animals before SE and at 1, 7, 21 and 42  days after the onset of SE. Statistical analysis of the data obtained demonstrated no significant difference in the bilateral thalamus of healthy macaques. Our MRS data showed symmetrical distributions of N-acetylaspartate in the right and left thalami after SE (p = 0.003). In addition, this longitudinal study demonstrated elevated glutamate/glutamine (p < 0.05) and reduced myo-inositol (p < 0.05) in the bilateral thalamus 1  day after SE, and all metabolites approached their baseline levels by the fifth scan. Our results demonstrate that metabolic changes occur in the thalamus during CL-induced SE in rhesus monkeys. The various metabolic changes may indicate that the left thalamus is more vulnerable to epileptic strike.

Topics: Animals; Creatinine; Disease Models, Animal; Glutamic Acid; Inositol; Lactones; Macaca mulatta; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Metabolome; Protons; Status Epilepticus; Thalamus; Time Factors

Twenty adult male Wistar rats, divided into two groups were studied. Experimental rats were embedded with a particle containing Coriaria Lactone into the fore limb's representative area of cerebral motor cortex to induce epilepsy. Control rats were embedded with a particle containing distilled water. After 6 h motor cortex was cut and the structure was compared morphologically with control rats. Some pale neurons, dark shrunken neurons and severe sponginess of neuropil were observed in layers I-V of the epileptic rat under LM. Under EM, the mitochondria became swollen and other organelles migrated and close associated with the nucleus in pale neurons, and in dark neurons both cytoplasm and karyoplasm showed highly electron dense. The spongiform neuropil was mainly occupied by swollen glial processes. The number of neuron and neuroglia were counted from photos under LM. The number of synaptic terminal was counted directly and the areal fraction of the constituents in the neuropil was measured stereologically in the EM photos. The number of neuron and neueroglia decreased significantly. Both the number of synaptic terminal in neuropil and the areal fraction of synaptic terminal decreased significantly. These changes were most prominent in the focus area of epileptic rats and in the parafocus area, too. This may indicate that the decrease of areal fraction of synaptic terminal results from the decrease of the number of synaptic terminal.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Topics: Animals; Cerebral Cortex; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Lactones; Male; Microscopy, Electron; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Status Epilepticus

We studied the amount of dopamine on the substantia nigra-ventral tegmental area during status epilepticus of male Wistar rats induced by coriaria lactone with fluorescence histochemical technique and autoexposuremeter of microscope. The intensity of dopamine fluorescence in the climax epileptic seizure group (10 rats) and postepileptic seizure group (8 rats) decreased significantly as compared with the control (10 rats), but the intensity of dopamine fluorescence in the pre-eileptic seizure group (10 rats) was not significantly different from that of the control group. The result indicated that epileptic seizure induces a decrease of the inhibitory neurotransmitter-dopamine. Therefore dopamine plays an important role in regulating the epileptic seizures.

Topics: Animals; Dopamine; Lactones; Male; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Status Epilepticus; Substantia Nigra

Twenty-four adult male Wistar rats were used in this study. Status epilepticus was provoked in 10 rats by embedding coriaria lactone particle into the left cerebral motor cortex. In the controls were embedded particles without coriaria lactone. After 6 h of continuous seizure, the locus coeruleus was studied with the noradrenaline (NA) fluorescence histochemical technique and enzyme histochemical test for monoamine oxidase (MAO). The intensity of NA fluorescence was detected with fluorescent microscope autoexposuremeter and analysed with MIAS-200 Image Analyser. The study group showed a parallel increase of NA fluorescence as compared with that of the control group by both measurements. NA plays an inhibitory role in the cortex. Our data suggest that the increase of NA in locus coeruleus may be due to the reduction of NA release from axon terminal. Reduction in inhibition could be one of the mechanisms of seizure activity. The intensity of MAO was detected with MIAS-200 Image Analyser. The regulation of monoamine metabolism by MAO in the central nervous system and the increase of MAO activity in the continuous seizure group may be induced by the accumulation of NA in the locus coeruleus soma.

Topics: Animals; Histocytochemistry; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Lactones; Locus Coeruleus; Male; Microscopy, Fluorescence; Monoamine Oxidase; Norepinephrine; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Status Epilepticus

Topics: Animals; Disease Models, Animal; Lactones; Male; Medicine, Chinese Traditional; Medicine, East Asian Traditional; Plants, Medicinal; Rats; Rats, Inbred Strains; Status Epilepticus