Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience Program, Centre for Research in Neuroscience, Department of Medicine, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal General Hospital, The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Front Neural Circuits. 2020 Jan 29;14:3. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2020.00003. eCollection 2020.
Electrical kindling, repeated brain stimulation eventually resulting in seizures, is widely used as an animal model of epileptogenesis and epilepsy. However, the stimulation electrode used for electric kindling targets unknown neuronal populations and may introduce tissue damage and inflammation. Optogenetics can be used to circumvent these shortcomings by permitting millisecond control of activity in genetically defined neurons without gross injury or inflammation. Here we describe an easy step-by-step protocol for optogenetic kindling - optokindling - by which seizures are eventually elicited in initially healthy mice through repeated light stimulation of neurons expressing Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2). Chronic EEG recordings may be performed over large time scales to monitor activity while video camera monitoring may be used to assess the behavioral severity of seizures. In conclusion, with optokindling, neuroscientists can elucidate the circuit changes that underpin epilepsy while minimizing the contribution of confounding factors such as brain damage and inflammation.
电点燃，即重复的脑刺激最终导致癫痫发作，被广泛用作癫痫发生和癫痫的动物模型。然而，用于电点燃的刺激电极靶向未知的神经元群体，并且可能引起组织损伤和炎症。光遗传学可以通过在没有大的损伤或炎症的情况下，对遗传定义的神经元进行毫秒级的活动控制来规避这些缺点。在这里，我们描述了一种通过表达通道视紫红质-2（ChR2）的神经元进行重复光刺激，最终在最初健康的小鼠中引发癫痫的简便的逐步光点燃（optokindling）方案。慢性 EEG 记录可以在较大的时间范围内进行，以监测活动，而视频摄像机监测可用于评估癫痫发作的行为严重程度。总之，通过 optokindling，神经科学家可以阐明支持癫痫的电路变化，同时最大限度地减少诸如脑损伤和炎症等混杂因素的贡献。
