Expression of Beclin-1 following recurrent neonatal seizures in the hippocampus and intervention by 3-methyladenine

Objective To study the role of autophagy/lysesomal pathway in developmental seizure-induced apoptosis of the hippocampai cells, we investigated the dynamic expression of Beclin-1 in the hippocampus and the intervention effect of autophagy/lysosome inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3-MA) on Beclin-1 expression following recurrent seizures in neonatal rats. Methods One hundred and eight SD rats aged 6 d were randomly divided into 3 groups: repeated neonatal seizures (RS group), 3-MA-treated seizure (3-MA group) and the control grous(n=36). Rats in the RS group were performed the indraft of flurothyl 5 times daily for a consecutive 9 d. In the 3-MA group, 3-MA was injected every day with a total dosage of 2 μL before seizures were induced. The rats in the 3 groups were sacrificed at 1.5, 3, 6, 12, 24 and 48 h after the last convulsion with 6 rats at each time points; Western blotting was employed to determine the expression of Beclin-1 in the hippocampus at these different time points. Results The expression of Beclin-1 in the RS group was significantly higher than that in the control group at the same time points (P<0.05). The expression of Beclin-1 at each time point (1.5, 3, 6, 12, 24 and 48 h) in the 3-MA group was significantly decreased compared with that in the RS group (P<0.05). Conclusion Autophagy/lysosomal pathway are activated immediately alter the neonatal seizures and 3-MA involves in the regulation of autophagy/lysosomal pathway by down-regulating the expression of Beclin-1. Key words: Seizure;  Neonatal;  Beclin-1;  Autophagy;  3-methyladenine