Development of seizure patterns in newborn animals; significance of brain carbonic anhydrase.

Abstract

SummaryElectroshock seizures have been studied in young rats and guinea pigs, and a correlation has been demonstrated between the developmental pattern and threshold of the induced seizures and the level of carbonic anhydrase activity in the brain. In young rats aged 20 to 35 days, the seizures were mainly tonic in pattern, whereas the clonic type of seizure predominated in rats aged 10 to 20 days. Failure to induce convulsions in the newborn rat was associated with a low level of carbonic anhydrase activity in the brain. The degree of maturation of the newborn guinea pig was equivalent to that of the 15-day-old rat, both with regard to the type of seizure response and the level of brain carbonic anhydrase activity. That brain carbonic anhydrase is of functional significance in the generalized spread of the seizure discharge and in the production of a maximal tonic convulsion is suggested by these data and by observations of the anticonvulsant activity of acetazolamide.