【Animal Modeling】-Amygdala Kindling Model in Rats

  1. Modeling material animal: Wistar rat, female, body weight (180±10) g; medicine: pentobarbital, penicillin; equipment: posture measuring instrument, electronic stimulator.

  2. Modeling method The model rat was anesthetized by intraperitoneal injection of 40 mg/kg pentobarbital, and fixed on the Jiangwan Type I stereotaxic instrument. Determine the left and right amygdala of the rat according to the Ktinig diagram, and the coordinates are 30mm behind the anterior reg, 48mm laterally, 88mm subdural, and two insulated bipolar electrodes with a diameter of 0.25mm are inserted. The tips are about 0.25 mm apart, and a micro plug is welded to the other end. Electrodes and micro plugs are fixed on the surface of the skull with denture powder. After the operation, 100,000 u of penicillin was injected intraperitoneally for 3 consecutive days to prevent infection.

  Two weeks after the operation, the right amygdala was stimulated with a constant current once a day. The parameters are a 400μA single-phase square wave with a wavelength of 1 ms, a frequency of 60 Hz, and a duration of 1 s. It records the electrical changes of the brain and the discharge latency (latency period), post-discharge duration (post-discharge duration, ADD) and seizure severity (seizure severity). The discharge latency is the time from the end of the stimulation to the high-amplitude spike discharge in the excited nucleus. The post-discharge duration refers to the duration of the amigadala EEG amplitude after stimulation, which is at least twice that before stimulation. The discharge duration when the frequency is higher than 1 Hz; the behavioral classification method of attack intensity Racine: I. Mobility, close eyes, move beard, smell the smell; II. Nodding, chewing facial cramps; III. Raised a forelimb, Kronus; IV. Standing on two forelimbs for a long time; V. Standing, falling, common in chronic epileptic seizures. When the V phase reaction occurs 5 times in a row, it will ignite completely.

  3. Modeling principle Electrical stimulation of the amygdala can cause epilepsy in animals.

  4. Changes after modeling After stimulation, both the left and right amygdala showed high-amplitude and high-frequency epileptic discharges. With the increase of the number of stimulations, the duration after discharge gradually increased from (10±2.1) seconds. When the first phase V response appeared, at the beginning of the stimulation (45.3±5.4), the number of stimulations required for complete ignition was (13.3±4.2) times.

  5. Precautions Strictly disinfect surgical instruments to prevent surgical infection, surgical trauma should be as small as possible, and strict aseptic operations should be performed. After the surgical operation, the rats can be separated and awakened for 3-5 hours, and then placed in a cage to prevent the first awakened rat from licking or biting the wound of the unconscious rat. In the breeding room, try to maintain the best temperature and humidity for the rats.