Effect of vitamin D on apoptosis of hippocampal cells in epileptic rats induced by kainic acid and pentylenetetrazol

Abstract

Objective To investigate the effect of vitamin D on apoptosis of hippocampal cells in epileptic rats induced by kainic acid and pentylenetetrazol. Methods 48 Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into 6 groups: control group (group A), vitamin D group (group B), kainic acid (KA) group (group C), pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) (group D), vitamin D+ KA group (group E), vitamin D+ PTZ group (group F) with 8 rats in each group. Group B, group E, group F were given vitamin D 3 for two weeks. At the end of the day, when the average body weight of group C, group D, group E and group F reached 220 g, group C and group E. The epileptic animal model was established by intraabdominal injection of pentylenetetrazol into group D and group F. The seizures were observed within 1 hour after intraabdominal injection of the same dose of saline in group A and group B. The time of seizures after administration of kainic acid and pentylenetetrazol, the grade of seizures in the paroxysmal and subsequent stages, the duration of each grade of seizures, and the overall duration of recurrent seizures were recorded. The therapeutic effect of vitamin D on seizures was evaluated by recording the latent time from kainic acid and pentylenetetrazol to the first seizure. Results The TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) positive cell counts in the KA group [(40.6±3.5)%] and the PTZ group [(83.2±3.3)%] were significantly higher than those in the control group [(4.3±2.0)%] and the vitamin D group [(4.5±2.2)%] (P 0.05). Conclusion Vitamin D has protective effects on hippocampal cell apoptosis in rats with epilepsy induced by KA and PTZ. Key words: Vitamin D; Kainic acid; Pentylenetetrazol; Epilepsy; Hippocampus; Apoptosis