ABSTRACT
Objective To study the possible mechanisms by which repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) pretreatment antagonizes seizures induced by lithium chloride-pilocarpine and any correlation with antiapoptosis in hippocampal CA1 neurons.Methods Thirty rats were randomly divided into a control group, a sham stimulation group and an rTMS pretreatment group. The rTMS pretreatment group was pretreated on 7 consecutive days with low-frequency rTMS (0.5 Hz, 75％ of threshold intensity, 20 times/bundle, and 5 bundles/d), while the sham-stimulation group was sham-stimulated with a similar sound. Lithium chloride-pilocarpine ( LPC ) was used to induce a model epileptic state.Epileptic stroke latency and severity were recorded ; neuronal morphology was observed using hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining; mean positive-reactive cell number and mean optical density and absorbance of B cell lymphoma/leukemia gene-2 (Bcl-2) were recorded, and Fas and Caspase-3 protein in the hippocampal CA1 region were observed with immunohistochemistry.Results Compared with the sham stimulation group, epileptic latency in the rTMS pretreatment group was significantly longer. Seizures in the rTMS pretreatment group were less severe, and a number of degenerated neurons were observed to be apoptotic. Bcl-2 protein expression increased at each time point, but Fas and Caspase-3 protein expression decreased.Conclusions rTMS pretreatment has an anti-epilepsy effect. The possible neuronal protection might be produced by regulating the expression of Bcl-2, Fas and Caspase-3 protein in the hippocampus.