Free Radical in Brain of Spontaneously Epileptic Rat (SER)

Abstract

The spontaneously epileptic rat (SER; zi/zi, tm/tm) is the double mutant obtained by mating the tremor rat (TRM; tm/tm) with the zitter rat (ZI; zi/zi), exhibits tonic convulsions and absencelike seizures without external stimulation, and has marked vacuolation and hypomyelination in the brain. Vacuole formation is seen widely in the brain of TRM rat as same as SER. As free radical and its related materials may possibly participate to form vacuole in the brain of SER and TRM rats, free radicals (⋅C, ⋅OH, ⋅H), TBARS level, SOD activity and content of fatty acids were investigated.
During maturation, free radicals and Cu, Zn-SOD activities in the brain of SER did not change, but TBARS levels in cerebellum and pons-medulla oblongata increased. On the other hand, in pons-medulla oblongata of TRM rats, Cu, Zn-SOD activity and ⋅OH radical increased during maturation. In the same region of the 24-week-old TRM rats, TBARS level increased and the content of arachidonic acid (C_{22: 4}) decreased significantly compared with those in WTC rats. These results suggest that vacuole formation may be caused by lipid peroxidation of membrane.