Neuroprotective effect of astaxanthin on newborn rats exposed to prenatal maternal seizures.

This study was designed to investigate whether astaxanthin ameliorates the hippocampal damage in newborn rats induced by maternal epileptic seizures in utero and to explore the underlying mechanisms. Female Sprague-Dawley rats underwent chronic amygdalar kindling. After being fully kindled, all rats were allowed to mate, and electrical stimulation in the amygdala was performed every other day throughout the pregnancy. Astaxanthin was intraperitoneally injected at a dose of 30 mg/kg/d throughout pregnancy. Prenatal astaxanthin administration ameliorated neuronal lesions, decreased oxidative stress and induced the expression of cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus of pups. Astaxanthin also ameliorated placental ischemic damage in epileptic mothers. Based on the results of the present study, we concluded that astaxanthin might serve as a therapeutic agent for preventing brain damage in offspring exposed to prenatal maternal seizures. PMID: 30910691 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Brain Research Bulletin - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Brain Res Bull Source Type: research