Poststroke epilepsy following transient unilateral middle cerebral and common carotid artery occlusion in young adult and aged F344 rats

• Published in: Epilepsy research Vol. 141; pp. 38 - 47
• Main Authors: Kelly, Kevin M., Jukkola, Peter I., Yin, Guo, Miller, Eric R., Kharlamov, Elena A., Shiau, Deng-Shan, Strong, Roger, Aronowski, Jaroslaw
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.03.2018
• Subjects: Age Factors; Aging; Animals; Brain Infarction - etiology; Carotid Artery Diseases - complications; Carotid Artery Diseases - mortality; Carotid Artery, Common - pathology; Common carotid artery occlusion; Cortical infarction; Disease Models, Animal; Electroencephalography; Epilepsy - etiology; Epilepsy - mortality; Forelimb - physiopathology; Functional Laterality - physiology; Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery - complications; Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery - mortality; Male; Middle cerebral artery occlusion; Phosphopyruvate Hydratase - metabolism; Poststroke epilepsy; Poststroke seizures; Postural Balance; Rats; Rats, Inbred F344; Video-EEG; Common carotid artery occlusion; Poststroke seizures; Poststroke epilepsy; Middle cerebral artery occlusion; Cortical infarction; Video-EEG
• ISSN: 0920-1211; 1872-6844
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2018.02.002

•Seizures occurred within 2 months in 4- and 20-month lesioned and 20-month sham rats.•Both age and infarction independently had effects on seizure frequency.•There was no interaction between age and infarction on seizure frequency.•There was no difference in infarct volumes between 4- and 20-month lesioned animals.•All animals had intermittent solitary myoclonic convulsions arising out of sleep. The mechanisms of injured brain that establish poststroke seizures and epilepsy are not well understood, largely because animal modeling has had limited development. The main objective of this study was to determine whether an arterial occlusion model of cortical stroke in young adult and aged rats was capable of generating either focal or generalized epileptic seizures within 2 months of lesioning. Four- and 20-month-old male Fischer 344 (F344) sham-operated controls and those lesioned by transient (3 h) unilateral middle cerebral artery (MCA) and common carotid artery (CCA) occlusion (MCA/CCAo) were studied by video-EEG recordings up to 2 months post-procedure. The main findings were: 1) seizures (grade 3 and above) were recorded within 2 months in both young (4-month; 0.23/h) and aged (20-month; 1.93/h) MCA/CCAo rat groups; both MCA/CCAo rat groups had more seizures recorded than the respective control groups, i.e., no seizures in young controls and 0.52/h in old controls; 2) both age and infarction independently had effects on seizure frequency; however, there was no demonstrated interaction between the two factors; and 3) there was no difference in infarct volumes comparing 4- to 20-month-old MCA/CCAo animals. In addition, all lesioned and sham-operated animals demonstrated intermittent solitary myoclonic convulsions arising out of sleep. Morbidity and mortality of animals limited the extent to which the animals could be evaluated, especially 20-month-old animals. These results suggest that transient unilateral MCA/CCAo can result in poststroke epileptic seizures in both young adult and aged F344 rats within a relatively brief period of time following lesioning.