Effect of topiramate on the apotosis of hippocampal neurone in kainic acid-induced epileptic status in rats

Objective To observe the effect of topiramate(TPM) on neuronic apoptosis following kainic acid(KA) induced statusepilepticus(SE) in rats.Methods 120 adult male Wistar rats were randomly divided into three group:Group TPM,Group KAand thegroup of blank control.Every group was subdivided into four subgroups to leave to execute at 3 hours,12 hours,24 hours and 48 hoursafter SE.There were 10 rats in every subgroup.Group TPM were pretreated with TPM.The behaviour was observed,HE staining andTUNEL stainings were made in rat after KA induced SE.The immunohistochemical staining was used to examine caspase-3 expression.Results Compared with group KA,the epileptic seizures were delayed in the group of TPM.HE and TUNEL staining revealed that thehippocampal pathological damage in group TPM was slighter than that in group KA.The immunohistochemical staining showed that theexpression of caspase-3 was obviously down-regulated in Group TPM.Conclusion These results indicated that TPM may alleviate theseizure and reduce the expression of caspase-3 significantly.TPM could also lessen the hippocampal neuronic damage in SE rats.