Abstract
Having set up pharmacological kindling in rats by repeated injection of picrotoxin at a subthreshold dose i.p., a study was made of activity produced by injecting the trypsinized protein fragment, T5 — diazepam binding inhibitor (DBI) in man at a dose of 10 µg — into the reticular section of the substantia nigra (SN). Severity of convulsive effects increased in animals under the influence of DBI and the anticonvulsant action of diazepam declined. Intranigral injection of DBI did not affect the threshold triggering attacking behavior in rats when current was passed through the electrically-conducting floor, nor did the antiaggressive action of diazepam change under these conditions. Findings would indicate that the benzodiazepine receptors of the SN contribute to suppression of epileptic response during kindling and to the production of anticonvulsive (but not antiaggressive) diazepam action.
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N. I. Pirogov Medical Institute, Odessa. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 482–485, July–August, 1990.
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Shandra, A.A., Godlevskii, L.S., Mazarati, A.M. et al. Role of the substantia nigra in antiaggressive and anticonvulsant effects of diazepam during pharmacological kindling. Neurophysiology 22, 356–359 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01052475
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01052475