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Post-Seizure α-Tocopherol Treatment Decreases Neuroinflammation and Neuronal Degeneration Induced by Status Epilepticus in Rat Hippocampus

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Abstract

Vitamin E (as α-tocopherol, α-T) was shown to have beneficial effects in epilepsy, mainly ascribed to its antioxidant properties. Besides radical-induced neurotoxicity, neuroinflammation is also involved in the pathophysiology of epilepsy, since neuroglial activation and cytokine production exacerbate seizure-induced neurotoxicity and contribute to epileptogenesis. We previously showed that α-T oral supplementation before inducing status epilepticus, markedly reduces astrocytic and microglial activation, neuronal cell death and oxidative stress in the hippocampus, as observed 4 days after seizure. In order to evaluate the possibility that such a neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effect may also provide a strategy for an acute intervention in epilepsy, in this study, seizures were induced by single intaperitoneal injection of kainic acid and, starting from 3 h after status epilepticus, rats were treated with an intraperitoneal bolus of α-T (250 mg/kg b.w.; once a day) for 4 days, that was the time after which morphological and biochemical analyses were performed on hippocampus. Post-seizure α-T administration significantly reduced astrocytosis and microglia activation, and decreased neuron degeneration and spine loss; these effects were associated with the presence of a lowered lipid peroxidation in hippocampus. These results confirm and further emphasize the anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective role of α-T in kainic acid-induced epilepsy. Moreover, the findings show that post-seizure treatment with α-T provides an effective secondary prevention against post-seizure inflammation-induced brain damages and possibly against their epileptogenic effects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth, Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, 61029, Urbino, Italy

    Patrizia Ambrogini, Andrea Minelli, Claudia Galati, Michele Betti, Davide Lattanzi & Riccardo Cuppini

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Perugia, 06100, Perugia, Italy

    Silvia Ciffolilli, Marta Piroddi & Francesco Galli

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  1. Patrizia Ambrogini
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  2. Andrea Minelli
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  3. Claudia Galati
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  4. Michele Betti
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Correspondence to Patrizia Ambrogini.

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Ambrogini, P., Minelli, A., Galati, C. et al. Post-Seizure α-Tocopherol Treatment Decreases Neuroinflammation and Neuronal Degeneration Induced by Status Epilepticus in Rat Hippocampus. Mol Neurobiol 50, 246–256 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-014-8648-2

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