title: Technical note: preliminary results in development of a novel intracisternal penicillin seizure model in the rat.
abstract: In order to develop an intracisternal penicillin rat model of epilepsy, eleven anesthetized male Wistar rats were studied. 5 underwent intracisternal injection of penicillin (doses 150,000-300,000 units) in the prone position, and another 5 underwent intraperitoneal penicillin injection; one died following intracisternal injection, prior to further study. Time between penicillin injection and seizure induction (determined by electroencephalography) was recorded. Each animal had a tracheostomy, and was mechanically ventilated and carefully monitored for adverse effects. Seizures were noted in an average of 13:42 minutes following penicillin injection (range 4:30-23:20) for the intracisternally (IC) injected group. Both episodic and continuous seizure activity was seen, and a dose-dependent effect was seen (quicker-onset, more continuous seizures with higher doses, in the IC group). Onset was significantly faster in the IC than for the intraperitoneally injected group (all >1 hour for the latter group in our study). 96 total separate seizure episodes were seen, ranging from 3 to 540 seconds. Epileptic activity could be seen in all IC-injected rats lasting over 1 hour into the study. The intracisternal penicillin injection rat model appears to provide a quick-onset, reliable method of inducing seizure activity in the rat model while leaving the cranial vault intact.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Louisiana State University-Shreveport, Louisiana 71130, USA. rpatwa@lsuhsc.edu
authors.forename: Ravish V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Patwardhan
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Calvert
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Besio
authors.forename: Gen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kusaka
authors.forename: Ikuyo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kusaka
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Anil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nanda
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000139:chemically induced*; D007274:Injections, Intraperitoneal; D008297:Male; D010406:Penicillins; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D010406:Penicillins