seizure, maternal separation

Early life stress causes long-lasting effects on the limbic system that may be relevant to the development of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) and its associated psychopathology. Recent studies in rats suggest that maternal separation (MS), a model of early life stress, confers enduring vulnerability to amygdala kindling limbic epileptogenesis. However, the mechanisms underlying this remain unknown. Here, we tested whether hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis hyper-reactivity induced by MS - specifically the excessive secretion of corticosterone following a seizure - was involved in this vulnerability...

OBJECTIVE: To compare infant outcomes between mothers with hypertension treated by beta-blockers alone and by methyldopa alone during pregnancy. DESIGN: Historical cohort study. SETTING: Saskatchewan, Canada. POPULATION: Women who delivered a singleton birth in Saskatchewan during the periods from 1 January 1980 to 30 June 1987 or from 1 January 1990 to 31 December 2005 (women who delivered between 1 July 1987 and 31 December 1989 were excluded because the information recorded on maternal drug use during pregnancy is incomplete) with a diagnosis of a hypertensive disorder during pregnancy, and who were dispensed only beta-blockers (n = 416) or only methyldopa (n = 1000)...

OBJECTIVE(S): Stress induces many homeostatic aberrations which are followed by lifelong allostatic responses. Epilepsy is developed or influenced by different environmental factors, i.e. prenatal stress which makes many contradictory developmental changes in seizure threshold and intensity. We investigated the potential seizure response of the rat offspring to prenatal stress; the stress which was applied to their mothers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nine day heterogeneous sequential stress (HSS) model was used before and during the first and before the second pregnancy...

Early life stress results in an enduring vulnerability to kindling-induced epileptogenesis in rats, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Recent studies indicate the involvement of thalamocortical neuronal circuits in the progression of kindling epileptogenesis. Therefore, we sought to determine in vivo the effects of early life stress and amygdala kindling on the firing pattern of hippocampus as well as thalamic and cortical neurons. Eight week old male Wistar rats, previously exposed to maternal separation (MS) early life stress or early handling (EH), underwent amygdala kindling (or sham kindling)...

Maternal seizure has adverse effects on brain histology as well as on learning and memory ability in progeny. An enriched environment (EE) is known to promote structural changes in the brain and improve cognitive and motor deficits following a variety of brain injuries. Whether EE treatment in early postnatal periods could restore cognitive impairment induced by prenatal maternal seizure is unknown. Adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly separated into two groups and were injected intraperitoneally either saline or pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) for 30 days...

BACKGROUND: Exposure to early postnatal stress is known to hasten the progression of kindling epileptogenesis in adult rats. Despite the significance of this for understanding mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) and its associated psychopathology, research findings regarding underlying mechanisms are sparse. Of several possibilities, one important candidate mechanism is early life 'programming' of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis by postnatal stress. Elevated corticosterone (CORT) in turn has consequences for neurogenesis and cell death relevant to epileptogenesis...

BACKGROUND: In humans, traumatic experiences are sometimes followed by psychiatric disorders. In chimpanzees, studies have demonstrated an association between traumatic events and the emergence of behavioral disturbances resembling posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. We addressed the following central question: Do chimpanzees develop posttraumatic symptoms, in the form of abnormal behaviors, which cluster into syndromes similar to those described in human mood and anxiety disorders? METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In phase 1 of this study, we accessed case reports of chimpanzees who had been reportedly subjected to traumatic events, such as maternal separation, social isolation, experimentation, or similar experiences...

We recently identified 6-(4-methoxyphenyl)-5-methyl-3-pyridin-4-ylisoxazolo[4,5-c]pyridin-4(5H)-one (MMPIP), the first allosteric metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) 7 receptor-selective negative allosteric modulator. In this study, we examined the in vivo pharmacological effects of MMPIP on the central nervous system. MMPIP was distributed into the brain after systemic administration in both mice and rats. Pharmacokinetic study revealed that the half-life of MMPIP in circulation was about 1h in rats. Results of various behavioral studies revealed that MMPIP impaired non-spatial and spatial cognitive performances in the object recognition test and the object location test in mice, respectively...

The pathogenesis of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE), the most prevalent form of refractory focal epilepsy in adults, is thought to begin in early life, even though seizures may not commence until adolescence or adulthood. Amongst the range of early life factors implicated in MTLE causation (febrile seizures, traumatic brain injury, etc.), stress may be one important contributor. Early life stress is an a priori agent deserving study because of the large amount of neuroscientific data showing enduring effects on structure and function in hippocampus and amygdala, the key structures involved in MTLE...

Prolonged seizures during childhood are associated with behavior problems, memory impairment and school failure. No effective treatment currently exists after seizures to mitigate neuronal injury and long-term neurological sequelae for children with epilepsy. We studied the therapeutic efficacy of early-life environment on seizure-induced behavioral deficits, neuronal injury and the inflammatory reaction using the kainic acid (KA) seizure model. Two rearing conditions, maternal separation for 3 h daily versus maternal care in an enriched environment, were followed by single housing for the former (Deprived) and group housing in an enriched environment for the latter (Enriched)...

BACKGROUND: Emerging evidence indicates that early adverse experiences result in the maladaptive development of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and compromise the developing brain to subsequent neurological insults. Well known that mother-infant interaction plays an important role in early environment stimulation, neonatal isolation (NI) paradigm has been used as an early-life stress model in many relevant studies. Further, the effect of seizure on the developing brain is still not clarified despite more susceptibility to seizures of the developing brain...

Early in development, the depolarizing GABA(A)ergic signaling is needed for normal neuronal differentiation. It is shown here that hyperpolarizing reversal potentials of GABA(A)ergic postsynaptic currents (E(GABA)) appear earlier in female than in male rat CA1 pyramidal neurons because of increased potassium chloride cotransporter 2 (KCC2) expression and decreased bumetanide-sensitive chloride transport in females. Three episodes of neonatal kainic acid-induced status epilepticus (3KA-SE), each elicited at postnatal days 4 (P4)-P6, reverse the direction of GABA(A)ergic responses in both sexes...

PURPOSE: Early life stress has enduring behavioral and neuroendocrine effects, particularly in hippocampus and amygdala. This may be relevant to mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) that arises from these structures. In rats, we tested the hypothesis that early postnatal stress, in the form of maternal separation (MS), creates vulnerability to limbic epileptogenesis in adult life. METHODS: On postnatal days 2-14, we exposed male and female nonepileptic rats to either MS for 180 min/day, or early handling (EH) and brief separation (15 min/day)...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between maternal socioeconomic status and the risk of encephalopathy in full-term newborns. DESIGN: Population-based case-control study. SETTING: Washington State births from 1994 through 2002 recorded in the linked Washington State Birth Registry and Comprehensive Hospital Abstract Reporting System. PARTICIPANTS: Cases (n = 1060) were singleton full-term newborns with Comprehensive Hospital Abstract Reporting System International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision diagnoses of seizures, birth asphyxia, central nervous system dysfunction, or cerebral irritability...

BACKGROUND: Pulse oximetry could contribute to the evaluation of fetal well-being during labour. OBJECTIVES: To compare the effectiveness and safety of fetal pulse oximetry with conventional surveillance techniques. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group's Trials Register (November 2006), MEDLINE (1994 to November 2006), EMBASE (1994 to November 2006) and Current Contents (1994 to November 2006). SELECTION CRITERIA: All published and unpublished randomised controlled trials that compared maternal and fetal outcomes when fetal pulse oximetry was used in labour, with or without concurrent use of conventional fetal surveillance, compared with using cardiotocography (CTG) alone...

Emerging evidence indicates that early maternal care permanently modifies the activity of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and is a critical factor in determining the capacity of the brain to compensate for later encountered insults. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of corticosterone (CORT) in the detrimental effects of neonatal isolation (NI) on seizures. Rats were assigned randomly to the following five groups: (1) control (CONT) rats; (2) NI rats that underwent daily separation from their dams from postnatal day 2 (P2) to P9; (3) status epilepticus (SE) rats, induced by lithium-pilocarpine (Li-Pilo) model at P10; (4) NI plus SE (NIS) rats and (5) NISM rats, a subset of NIS rats receiving metyrapone (100 mg/kg), a CORT synthesis inhibitor, immediately after SE induction...

Stressful events during gestation and in the neonatal period have important effects on the later physical and mental health of the offspring. The present study tested the hypothesis that pre- and/or postnatal stress would affect seizure susceptibility in infant and adult rats, using the hippocampal kindling model. Prenatal stress consisted of daily restraint of the dam under bright light (for 45 min, 3 x / day) during either early gestation or mid/late gestation. Pups were compared to pups born to unstressed dams...

PURPOSE: Maternal deprivation is stressful for the neonate. The aim of this study was to investigate the short- and long-term effects of maternal separation on recurrent seizures in the developing brain. METHODS: Rats were divided into four groups according to whether the rat pups were treated with maternal deprivation from postnatal day 2 (P2) to P9 or neonatal seizures induced by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) from P10 to P14. Rats in the control group received saline i...

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the relative importance of genes and early environment in the etiology of febrile convulsions. METHODS: We performed a follow-up study using data from two nationwide registers in Denmark, 1980-1998. The study population comprised 10,224 younger siblings of children who had had febrile convulsions, and 21,218 younger siblings of children who had never been hospitalized with febrile convulsions. RESULTS: The study provides three main findings...

The Berlin longitudinal study on teratogenic effects of maternal epilepsy was conducted on children in 1976. Approximately 18 years later, 103 of these children's mothers were reassessed with regard to somatic, psychological, and social well-being or impairment. The families with previously diagnosed epileptic mothers (n = 59) and control families (n = 44) did not statistically differ in rates of family separation, divorce, or unemployment of the partners. There were also no significant differences in the mothers' current psychological quality-of-life status (SF-36) or their beliefs on internal or external disease control (FKK)...