ABSTRACT
Objective To detect the expression of extracellular-regulated kinase (ERK) and phosphatedextracellular-regulated kinase (P-ERK) in the hippocampus after pentylenetetrazoloe-induced status epilepsy and the effects of nimodipine on it.Methods Male Sprague-Dawley adult rats (200-250 g) were randomly divided into normal control group(NC,n =35),status epilepsy group (SE,n =40),nimodipine group (NIM,n =40).The rats were injected first with 40 mg/kg pentylenetetrazoloe(PTZ),followed 10 minutes later by 20 mg/kg PTZ,and subsequently,10 mg/kg PTZ ip every 10 minutes until SE occurred,apoint charactered by a loss of postural control and tonic-clonic seizures.Rats in control group received the same number of saline injections.Rats in NIM group were injected NIM(2.5 mg/kg) intraperitoneally 15 min before the injection of PTZ.Rats in every group were killed at 30 minutes,1 hour,3 hours,12 hours,24 horus,72 hours and 7 days after status epilepsy respectively and the hippocampus were dissected.The expression of ERK and P-ERK in the hippocampus were detected by Western blot.Results Nimodipine attenuated the convulsion of PTZ-induced status epilepsy.There was dynamic expression of P-ERK in SE group.In NIM group,the expression of P-ERK was markedly increased than that of SE group at 30 min,1h,3h,12h,24h,72h,and 7d (3.26 ±0.95 vs 2.56 ±0.82 at 30 min,P＜0.05).Conclusion Nimodipine attenuates the convulsion of PTZ-induced status epilepsy with increased expression of phosphated-ERK in the hippocampus of rats.