Kwon Young Se, Jeong Sang-Wuk, Kim Dong Wook, Choi Eun Sil, Son Byong Kwan
Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Inha University, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
Epilepsy Res. 2008 Feb;78(2-3):186-94. doi: 10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2007.11.010. Epub 2008 Jan 16.
The ketogenic diet (KD) remains a therapy in search of explanation although it is an established treatment of intractable epilepsy. Recent studies suggest that the KD may be both anticonvulsant and antiepileptogenic. Epileptic seizures have been shown to stimulate the proliferation rate of neuronal progenitor cells in adult animals, which may be related to epileptogenesis. It is known that calorie restriction (CR) increases neurogenesis. The KD was originally formulated to reproduce the biochemical changes seen upon fasting (extreme CR). Thus, we investigated the effects of the KD on neurogenesis after kainic acid (KA)-induced seizures in mice. In the present study, quantitative analysis of BrdU labeling revealed a significant increase in the proliferation rate of neuronal progenitor cells after KA-induced seizures in the KD-fed mice. This finding may provide a clue to explain how the KD exerts antiepileptogenic effects although further studies are mandatory to elucidate the relationship between seizure-induced neurogenesis augmented by the KD and its antiepileptogenic properties. In conclusion, our results suggest that the KD enhances neurogenesis, which may be related to its beneficial effects on epilepsy.
生酮饮食（KD）尽管是一种已确立的难治性癫痫治疗方法，但仍有待进一步解释。最近的研究表明，KD可能具有抗惊厥和抗癫痫发生的作用。在成年动物中，癫痫发作已被证明会刺激神经祖细胞的增殖率，这可能与癫痫发生有关。众所周知，热量限制（CR）会增加神经发生。KD最初的设计目的是重现禁食（极端CR）时出现的生化变化。因此，我们研究了KD对小鼠海人酸（KA）诱导癫痫发作后神经发生的影响。在本研究中，对BrdU标记的定量分析显示，在喂食KD的小鼠中，KA诱导癫痫发作后神经祖细胞的增殖率显著增加。这一发现可能为解释KD如何发挥抗癫痫发生作用提供线索，尽管需要进一步研究来阐明KD增强的癫痫发作诱导神经发生与其抗癫痫发生特性之间的关系。总之，我们的结果表明，KD增强神经发生，这可能与其对癫痫的有益作用有关。
