Expression of neuropeptides ghrelin in insular electrical kindled rats' model

Objective To set up the insular electrical kindled rats' model and to observe expression level of neuropeptides ghrelin.To explore its significance at last.Methods The male SD rats were divided randomly into the blank group,the sham-operated group and kindled group.The latter were divided to 5 subgroups of 1,3,7,10 and 14 d after the rats had been seizure.By stereotactic operation,electrodes were placed in the rats insular and set up the model.Changes of behaviors and ECoG of the rats were observed simultaneously.Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA),immunohistochemistry and realtime polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were used to detect the expressions of Ghrelin in the serum and hypothalamus of the epilepsy rats.Results From the behavior and ECoG in epileptic rats confirmed that the rats of electrical kindled to insular can be successfully established experimental animal models.Compared to the blank group,the sham-operated group,all kindled groups of the seizure rats had a decreased expression of ghrelin through ELISA detect in the rats' serum [(1 d:(4.46 ± 0.15) μg/L,3 d:(3.92 ± 0.07) μg/L,7 d:(2.16 ±0.18) μg/L,10 d:(3.04 ±0.85) μg/L,14 d (3.28 ±0.09) μg/L].Immunohistochemistry and real-time PCR detect in the rats' hypothalamus (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion The insular has the seizure potency.An accurate detection of serum expression level of ghrlin may reflect the fluctuation trend of neuropeptides in hypothalamus. Key words: Ghrelin;  Epilepsy ;  Insular;  Hypothalamus ;  Serum