Shi Li-Hong, Luo Fei, Woodward Donald, Chang Jing-Yu
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA.
Brain Res. 2006 May 23;1090(1):202-7. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2006.03.050. Epub 2006 May 2.
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been used to treat a variety of neurological disorders including epilepsy. However, we have limited knowledge about effective target areas, optimal stimulation parameters, and long-term effect of DBS on epileptic seizures. Here we examined the effects of DBS of the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) on amygdala-kindled seizures. Microwire electrodes were implanted into the SNr and amygdala of adult male rats. When stage 5-kindled seizures were achieved by daily amygdala kindling, high frequency stimulation was delivered to the SNr bilaterally 1 s after cessation of kindling. Our DBS protocol completely blocked kindled seizures in 10 out of 23 (43.5%) rats studied. Furthermore, when the same amygdala kindling procedure was performed 24 h later without DBS, the kindling failed to elicit any seizure signs in 6 of these 10 rats. Some of the post-DBS period of seizure suppression lasted for up to 4 days. In other 3 rats, only mild stage 1 to 2 seizures appeared following amygdala kindling. Only 1 of the 10 rats for which DBS had blocked kindled seizures exhibited full-scale 5 stage-kindled seizures 24 h after DBS. These results suggest that highly plastic neural networks are involved in amygdala-kindled seizures and that DBS, if well timed with the onset of amygdala kindling, may exert long lasting effects on the networks that may prevent the recurrence of kindled seizures.
深部脑刺激（DBS）已被用于治疗包括癫痫在内的多种神经系统疾病。然而，我们对DBS治疗癫痫的有效靶点区域、最佳刺激参数以及长期疗效了解有限。在此，我们研究了黑质网状部（SNr）的DBS对杏仁核点燃癫痫发作的影响。将微丝电极植入成年雄性大鼠的SNr和杏仁核。通过每日杏仁核点燃诱导达到5期点燃癫痫发作后，在点燃停止1秒后对双侧SNr进行高频刺激。在我们研究的23只大鼠中，有10只（43.5%）的DBS方案完全阻断了点燃癫痫发作。此外，在24小时后不进行DBS进行相同的杏仁核点燃程序时，这10只大鼠中有6只的点燃未引发任何癫痫发作迹象。DBS后癫痫发作抑制的一些时期持续长达4天。在其他3只大鼠中，杏仁核点燃后仅出现轻度的1至2期癫痫发作。在DBS阻断点燃癫痫发作的10只大鼠中，只有1只在DBS后24小时出现了全面的5期点燃癫痫发作。这些结果表明，高度可塑性神经网络参与了杏仁核点燃癫痫发作，并且如果DBS与杏仁核点燃的开始时间配合得当，可能会对神经网络产生持久影响，从而预防点燃癫痫发作的复发。
