[Animal Modeling]-Preliminary Study on the Mechanism of Hypoxic Preconditioning to Reduce the Susceptibility of Rats to Epilepsy and Its Brain Protection

  Objective: To preliminarily explore the effect of intermittent hypoxic preconditioning (IHP) on lithium pilocarpine (Li-pilo)-induced seizures and its brain protection mechanism.

  Method: 96 clean SD rats were randomly divided into a control group, an epilepsy group and 4 intermittent hypoxia preconditioning + epilepsy groups. Rats in the epilepsy group and 4 intermittent hypoxic preconditioning + epilepsy groups (injected at 1, 3, 7, 14 days after 5dIHP preconditioning) were intraperitoneally injected with lithium chloride and Jiao Guopin to establish epilepsy models. Subsequently, 240 minutes of epileptic behavior, generalized epilepsy latency and percentage quantitative analysis were performed, and the cognitive function of the rats was tested through the water maze experiment. Next, TUNEL labeling and western blotting were used to detect the apoptosis of rat hippocampal neurons and related proteins (BCL-2, Bax, and truncated caspase-3).

  Result: The modified acine score for epileptic seizures reached a peak 50-150 minutes after the injection of lithium stearate. The average modified acine score of rats in the epilepsy-induced epilepsy group after intermittent hypoxia preconditioning was significantly lower than that of the other groups. The incubation period and incidence of generalized seizures in this group were also significantly different from those in the epilepsy group (P\u003c0.05).

  Conclusion: IHP pretreatment can reduce the epilepsy sensitivity of rats and protect the brain by inhibiting abnormal cell apoptosis.