Expression of Clusterin-α Following Penicillin-Induced Developmental Seizures in Immature Rat Brain and Intervention Effect by Lysosomal Enzyme Inhibitor E-64 d

Objective To explore the expression of Clusterin-α in brain and the intervention effect of lysosomal enzyme inhibitor E-64 d on brain damage of developmental rats with recurrent seizures. Methods Sprague-Dawley(SD) rats at the age of 21 days were randomly divided into recurrent prolonged seizure group(RS group,n=24),E-64 d-treated seizure group(ERS group,n=24),normal saline control group(CON group,n=19).At postnatal day 21st,the penicillin(5.1×106 U·kg-1·d-1) was used to induce seizure attack,6 times.Recurrent seizures were induced every other day in 6 consecutive days in the RS group and ERS group.In ERS group,E-64d(4 μg) was injected intraperitoneally every other day before seizure induced.Rats in CON group were injected with equal amount of normal sodium at the same time. At 21d after last time induced seizure(postnatal days 51),selected randomly each 6 rats that up to the Racine standard from RS group and ERS group as RS and ERS group in the experiment.At the same time,selected randomly 6 rats from the CON group as the CON group in the experiment.The 18 rats had been slaughtered to take the hippocampus and cerebral cortex at 51-day-old.Clusterin-α levels in hippocampus and cerebral cortex were detected by western blot method. All data were analyzed by SPSS 17.0 software. Results The levels of Clusterin-α in hippocampus and cerebral cortex of RS group were increased significantly compared with that of CON group(Pa0.05).The level of Clusterin-α of ERS group in hippocampus was decreased compared with that of RS group(P0.05).There were no significant difference in Clusterin-α expressions between ERS and RS group(P0.05). Conclusions Clusterin-α may be involved in the pathophysiology of the brain damage resulting from recurrent seizure.E-64 d protects the brain by down-regulating the expression of Clusterin-α.