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Stimulation-induced epileptogenesis : kindling of spontaneous motor seizures in rats

University of British Columbia

When periodic electrical stimulation is applied to any of a number of brain sites there can be a progressive development and intensification of elicited motor seizures. This has been termed the kindling effect. Although it has been repeatedly suggested that the kindling paradigm could provide a valuable experimental model of clinical epileptogenesis, it was only recently found that kindling would eventually lead to a bona fide epileptic syndrome in rats, cats and baboons, characterized by spontaneous motor seizures. The purpose of the present study was to systematically describe the development of the epileptic syndrome in kindled rats. In the two experiments animals were stimulated about 15 times per week for several months. Kindling progressed as others have reported, although with continued stimulations there were changes in the elicited seizures which had not been previously described. Almost all of the animals, regardless of whether they were stimulated in the amygdala, hippocampus, or entorhinal cortex, eventually displayed spontaneous motor seizures before the termination of the experiment. These seizures were found to persist in some animals for at least 7 months. Thus, it appears that the kindling paradigm may provide a valuable addition to the methods available for the experimental investigation of epilepsy and its genesis.

Text

2010-02-12

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20192

Psychology

University of British Columbia

Graduate