Impact of repeated kindled seizures on heart rate rhythms, heart rate variability, and locomotor activity in rats.

Although an impact of epilepsy on circadian rhythmicity is well-recognized, there are profound gaps in our understanding of the influence of seizures on diurnal rhythms. The effect on activity levels and heart rate is of particular interest as it might contribute to the disease burden. The kindling model with telemetric transmitter implants provides excellent opportunities to study the consequences of focal and generalized seizures under standardized conditions. Data from kindled rats with generalized seizures revealed an increase in activity and heart rate during the resting phase. Total and short-term heart rate variabilities were not affected by electrode implantation or seizure induction. Ictal alterations in heart rate associated with generalized seizures were characterized by a biphasic bradycardia with an immediate drop of heart rate followed by a transient normalization and a second more steady decrease. In conclusion, the findings demonstrate that once daily generalized seizures can exert significant effects on heart rate rhythms. Respective alterations in patients would be of relevance for patient counselling and therapeutic management. Occurrence of biphasic bradycardia associated with seizure induction suggests that the kindling model is suitable to study the consequences and the prevention of ictal bradycardia, which may pose patients at risk for sudden unexpected death.

Regulation of Alzheimer's disease-associated proteins during epileptogenesis.

Clinical evidence and pathological studies suggest a bidirectional link between temporal lobe epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Data analysis from omic studies offers an excellent opportunity to identify the overlap in molecular alterations between the two pathologies. We have subjected proteomic data sets from a rat model of epileptogenesis to a bioinformatics analysis focused on proteins functionally linked with AD. The data sets have been obtained for hippocampus (HC) and parahippocampal cortex samples collected during the course of epileptogenesis. Our study confirmed a relevant dysregulation of proteins linked with Alzheimer pathogenesis. When comparing the two brain areas, a more prominent regulation was evident in parahippocampal cortex samples as compared to the HC. Dysregulated protein groups comprised those affecting mitochondrial function and calcium homeostasis. Differentially expressed mitochondrial proteins included proteins of the mitochondrial complexes I, III, IV, and V as well as of the accessory subunit of complex I. The analysis also revealed a regulation of the microtubule associated protein Tau in parahippocampal cortex tissue during the latency phase. This was further confirmed by immunohistochemistry. Moreover, we demonstrated a complex epileptogenesis-associated dysregulation of proteins involved in amyloid ß processing and its regulation. Among others, the amyloid precursor protein and the α-secretase alpha disintegrin metalloproteinase 17 were included. Our analysis revealed a relevant regulation of key proteins known to be associated with AD pathogenesis. The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of shared molecular alterations characterizing epilepsy development and manifestation as well as AD development and progression.