Prophylactic treatment with melatonin after status epilepticus: effects on epileptogenesis, neuronal damage, and behavioral changes in a kainate model of temporal lobe epilepsy.

Abstract

Melatonin is a potent antioxidant which showed anticonvulsant activities both in experimental and clinical studies. In the present study, we examined the effect of melatonin treatment (10mg/kg/day, diluted in drinking water, 8 weeks) during epileptogenesis on the consequences of a kainate (KA)-induced status epilepticus (SE) in rats. Melatonin increased the latency in the appearance of spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRSs) and decreased their frequency only during the treatment period. The behavioral alterations associated with hyperactivity, depression-like behavior during the light phase, and deficits in hippocampus-dependent working memory were positively affected by melatonin treatment in rats with epilepsy. Melatonin reduced the neuronal damage in the CA1 area of the hippocampus and piriform cortex and recovered the decrease of hippocampal serotonin (5-HT) level in rats with epilepsy. Taken together, long-term melatonin treatment after SE was unable to suppress the development of epileptogenesis. However, it showed a potential in reducing some of the deleterious alterations that develop during the chronic epileptic state in a diurnal phase-dependent mode.

• Authors: Jana Tchekalarova, Zlatina Petkova, Daniela Pechlivanova, Slavianka Moyanova, Lidia Kortenska, Rumiana Mitreva, Valentin Lozanov, Dimitrina Atanasova, Nikolai Lazarov, Alexander Stoynev
• Journal: Epilepsy & behavior : E&B (Epilepsy Behav) Vol. 27 Issue 1 Pg. 174-87 (Apr 2013) ISSN: 1525-5069 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 23435277 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Central Nervous System Depressants
• Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists
• Serotonin
• Sucrose
• Melatonin
• Kainic Acid

Topics

• Analysis of Variance
• Animals
• Central Nervous System Depressants (therapeutic use)
• Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
• Depression (etiology, prevention & control)
• Electroencephalography
• Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists (toxicity)
• Exploratory Behavior (drug effects)
• Hippocampus (drug effects, metabolism, pathology)
• Hyperkinesis (etiology, prevention & control)
• Kainic Acid (toxicity)
• Kaplan-Meier Estimate
• Male
• Maze Learning (drug effects)
• Melatonin (therapeutic use)
• Neurons (pathology)
• Rats
• Rats, Wistar
• Serotonin (metabolism)
• Status Epilepticus (chemically induced, complications, drug therapy)
• Sucrose (administration & dosage)
• Swimming
• Time Factors