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Query: UMLS:C0149958 (complex partial seizures)
 2,563 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Experiments are reported describing assessment of abnormal behaviour of rats in which a chronic epileptiform syndrome has been induced by the injection of tetanus toxin bilaterally into their hippocampi. The abnormal behaviour included hyper-reactivity to a novel environment, intermittent aggression on handling, and abnormally passive response to a strange rat introduced into their home cage. In animals with unilateral injection of toxin, electrical records from the hippocampi have been obtained. They illustrated bilaterally simultaneous discharges and also some independence between the two hippocampi. The discharges were accompanied by overt signs of complex partial seizures during the first few weeks of the syndrome but later occurred without motor signs. In this later stage the rats were somewhat resistant to the convulsant effects of pentylenetetrazol.
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PMID:Behavioural correlates of an experimental hippocampal epileptiform syndrome in rats. 719 63

Reactive changes in hippocampal astrocytes are frequently encountered in association with temporal lobe epilepsy in humans and with drug or kindling-induced seizures in animal models. These reactive changes generally involve increases in astrocyte size and number and often occur together with neuronal loss and synaptic rearrangements. In addition to producing astrocytic changes, seizure activity can also produce reactive changes in microglia, the resident macrophages of brain. In this study, we examined the effects of recurrent seizure activity on hippocampal neurons and glia in the epileptic EL mouse, a natural model of human multifactorial idiopathic epilepsy and complex partial seizures. Timm staining was used to evaluate infrapyramidal mossy fiber organization and the optical dissector method was used to count Nissl-stained neurons in hippocampus of adult (about one year of age) EL mice and nonepileptic C57BL/6J (B6) and DDY mice. Immunostaining for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and Iba1, an actin cross-linking molecule restricted to macrophages and microglia, was used to evaluate astrocytes and microglia, respectively. The EL mice experienced about 25-30 complex partial seizures with secondary generalization during routine weekly cage changing. No significant differences were found among the mouse strains for Timm staining scores or for neuronal counts in the CA1 and CA3 pyramidal fields or in the hilus. However, the number of GFAP-positive astrocytes was significantly elevated in the stratum radiatum and hilus of EL mice, while microglia appeared hyper-ramified and were more intensely stained in EL mice than in the B6 or DDY mice in the hilus, parietal cortex, and pyriform cortex. The results indicate that recurrent seizure activity in EL mice is associated with abnormalities in hippocampal astrocytes and brain microglia, but is not associated with obvious neuronal loss or mossy fiber synaptic rearrangements. The EL mouse can be a useful model for evaluating neuron-glia interactions related to idiopathic epilepsy.
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PMID:Hippocampal neurons and glia in epileptic EL mice. 1450 Dec 7