Ketogenic diet attenuates neuronal injury via autophagy and mitochondrial pathways in pentylenetetrazol-kindled seizures.

Ketogenic diet attenuates neuronal injury via autophagy and mitochondrial pathways in pentylenetetrazol-kindled seizures. Brain Res. 2017 Oct 19;: Authors: Wang BH, Hou Q, Lu YQ, Jia MM, Qiu T, Wang XH, Zhang ZX, Jiang Y Abstract Autophagy alterations have been observed in a variety of neurological disorders, however, very few studies have focused on autophagy alterations in epilepsy. The ketogenic diet (KD) likely ameliorates neuronal loss in several seizure models. However, whether this neuroprotective function occurs via starvation-induced autophagy and its prevalence in chronic kindled seizures remains unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the role of autophagy following seizure under KD, and the potential mechanism involved. Pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-kindled rats, which were fed a Normal diet (ND) or KD, were pretreated with intraventricular infusions of saline, autophagy inducer rapamycin (RAP), or inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3-MA). KD alleviated seizure severity, decreased the number of Fluoro-jade B (FJB)-positive cells in the hippocampus of kindled rats. These effects were abolished by 3-MA pretreatment. RAP pretreatment did not affect seizure severity, but decreased the number of FJB-positive cells in ND group. KD decreased the percentage of damaged mitochondria in kindled group. Hippocampal Beclin-1 was increased by KD in vehicle group. The autophagy proteins Atg5, Beclin-1 and the ratio of microtubule-associated pr...
Source: Brain Research - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Brain Res Source Type: research