title: Behavioural and histopathological assessment of the effects of periodic fasting on pentylenetetrazol-induced seizures in rats.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Periodic fasting (PF) was suggested to display antiepileptic and neuroprotective effects, which is in stark contrast to severe fasting or starvation. However, these beneficial effects seem to depend on the type and duration of the used feeding protocol. There are discrepancies concerning both antiepileptic and neuroprotective effects of a PF-diet during repetitive seizures in different epilepsy models. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of different PF protocols on behavioural and histopathological consequences of epilepsy in adult rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  Recurrent generalized seizures were caused by repetitive injection of pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) for a period of 4 weeks every other day. While control animals had free access to food and water, animals on a PF-diet were on intermittent fasting for 24 hours every 48 hours for 4 weeks before (T1), after (T2), or both before and after (T3) the injection of PTZ. Behavioural studies were carried out after PTZ injections and histological investigations were performed after the experiments were completed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seizure assessment showed that the severity of seizures was significantly decreased in groups T1 and T3 when compared with control rats. Dark neuron densities in hippocampal CA1 and CA3 areas were decreased in PF groups, but never in the temporal cortex. The PF-diet also decreased the number of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labelling-positive neurons in the hippocampus in both areas and all PF-diet protocols.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results support the idea that a PF-diet has anticonvulsive and neuroprotective effects on epileptic rats but underlines that different PF-diet protocols can have varying effects. Anticonvulsive effects were strongest when the PF-diet started before the onset of excitotoxic injuries, the number of dark neurons was decreased and apoptosis was prevented by all PF-diet protocols investigated in this work. Further evaluation of PF-diet protocols for possible clinical anticonvulsant and neuroprotective effects is suggested.
authors: Shefa Neuroscience Research Center, Tehran, Iran; and Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors: Fariba
authors: F
authors: Karimzadeh
authors: Maryam
authors: M
authors: Jafarian
authors: Marzieh
authors: M
authors: Gharakhani
authors: Soodeh
authors: S
authors: Razeghi Jahromi
authors: Elham
authors: E
authors: Mohamadzadeh
authors: Behzad
authors: B
authors: Khallaghi
authors: Peir Hossein
authors: PH
authors: Kolivand
authors: Hadi
authors: H
authors: Kazemi
authors: Philippe
authors: P
authors: Coulon
authors: Ali
authors: A
authors: Gorji
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000473:pathology; D005215:Fasting; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology; D010433:Pentylenetetrazole / Q000009:adverse effects*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012640:Seizures / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D010433:Pentylenetetrazole