Regulating Effect Of Cerebellar Nuclei On SWDs In Rats With Absence Epilepsy

Absence epilepsy is a nervous system disease in which excessive abnormal discharge of brain neurons is caused by abnormal oscillations of the cerebral cortex-thalamic network.Absence seizure are often accompanied by transient loss of consciousness and stagnation in behavior,and occur mostly in children or adolescents,causing serious burden to the patient’s spirit and life.During absence seizures,the synchronized 2~4Hz Spike and wave discharges(SWDs)can be observed on EEG of the cerebral bilateral hemispheres of patients.The SWDs also be as EEG markers for seizures,so regulating SWDs means regulating the seizures of absence epilepsy.Recently,studies have shown that epileptic seizures involve widespread network interactions between cortical and subcortical structures.It suggests that the subcortical structures may be a potential regulation point,which provides a new idea for the regulation of the absence seizure.The cerebellum is an important subcortical structures,studies have shown that the cerebellar nucleus can regulate the absence seizure.However,the electrophysiological mechanism of cerebellar nucleus regulating absence seizures and its effect on cortical-thalamic network lack sufficient evidence.Therefore,to further verify the regulating effect of cerebellar nucleus on absence seizure,we designed an experiment to collect the electrophysiological signals of gama-Butyrolactone-induced model of absence epilepsy in rats,and investigated the regulating effect of GABAergic neurons receptor antagonist Gabazine and GABAergic neurons receptor agonist Muscimol on SWDs.The main results are as follows:1.Injection of Gabazine in the cerebellar nucleus of rats with absence epilepsy reduced the frequency of SWDs.Injection of Muscimol in the cerebellar nucleus of rats with absence epilepsy increased the frequency of SWDs.2.The EEG energy of SWDs is mainly concentrated at 2~6Hz.Gabazine reduced the energy of SWDs and the frequency of SWDs.Muscimol increased the energy of SWDs and the frequency of SWDs.3.During absence seizures,the intensity of information interaction between cortical-thalamic networks were abnormal increased,Gabazine reduced the intensity of this information interaction,and Muscimol increased the intensity of this information interaction.4.During synchronization time of SWDs episodes in absence epilepsy rats,the firing rate of cortical-thalamic network neurons increased.Gabazine reduced the firing rate of neurons,and Muscimol increased the firing rate of neurons.In summary,based on electrophysiological technology,pharmacological intervention in cerebellar nucleus of rats with absence epilepsy,we found that cerebellar nucleus could indirectly regulate the onset of absence epilepsy by changing the frequency and time of SWDs,and changed the intensity of information interaction between cortical-thalamic networks.and the firing rate of cortical-thalamic network neurons.These results further provided electrophysiological evidence that the cerebellar nucleus of rodents was involved in the regulation of absence epilepsy,and also provided new ideas for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with absence epilepsy.