Effects of kindling and epileptic seizures during pregnancy on cerebellar expression of the PSA-NCAM in rat pups

Abstract

Background: Maternal epileptic seizures during pregnancy could be affect offspring cerebellar function. The polysialylated neural cell adhesion molecule (PSA-NCAM), which is highly expressed in the developing central nervous system, may play important roles in myelination, cell migration, neurogenesis and synaptogenesis. This study to determine the effect of kindling and epileptic seizures during pregnancy on the PSA-NCAM expression in the neonatal rat cerebellum.

Methods: 40 adults' female Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups: A) Kindle⁺/Seizure⁺; pregnant kindled rats that received repeated intraperitoneal pentylen tetrazol, PTZ injections on gestational days (GD) 15, 17 and 19; B) Kindle⁺/Seizure^-; expectant kindled rats that did not receive any PTZ injections; C) Kindle - /Seizure+; gravid non-kindled rats that received PTZ injections on GD15, 17and 19 and D) Kindle^-/Seizure^- ; as the sham controls that received saline with equal volume of PTZ on GD15, 17 and 19, E)Normal pregnant; without any interference. Pups randomly selected on post-natal days 1 and 14 (PD1 and PD14) and PSA-NCAM expression in neonates’ cerebellum was analyzed by western blots and immunohistochemistry.

Results: Our data showed a significant down regulation of PSA-NCAM expression in the offspring cerebellum of Kindle⁺/Seizure⁺ (p=0.001) and Kindle^- /Seizure⁺ (p=0.001) at PD1 and Kindle⁺/Seizure⁺ (p=0.01) and Kindle^-/Seizure⁺ (p=0.01) at PD14 groups compared against the sham control and normal groups.

Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that during pregnancy, maternal seizures effects on the PSA-NCAM expression in the cerebellum newborns. Probably there is relationship between seizure's pregnancy, PSA-NCAM expression and offspring cerebellar structure or function from epileptic mothers.

Keywords: Maternal Seizure, Polysialylated Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule, Kindling, Rat, Cerebellum