Abstract
Pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) is a GABA-A receptor antagonist. An intraperitoneal injection of PTZ into an animal induces an acute, severe seizure at a high dose, whereas sequential injections of a subconvulsive dose have been used for the development of chemical kindling, an epilepsy model. A single low-dose injection of PTZ induces a mild seizure without convulsion. However, repetitive low-dose injections of PTZ decrease the threshold to evoke a convulsive seizure. Finally, continuous low-dose administration of PTZ induces a severe tonic-clonic seizure. This method is simple and widely applicable to investigate the pathophysiology of epilepsy, which is defined as a chronic disease that involves repetitive seizures. This chemical kindling protocol causes repetitive seizures in animals. With this method, vulnerability to PTZ-mediated seizures or the degree of aggravation of epileptic seizures was estimated. These advantages have led to the use of this method for screening anti-epileptic drugs and epilepsy-related genes. In addition, this method has been used to investigate neuronal damage after epileptic seizures because the histological changes observed in the brains of epileptic patients also appear in the brains of chemical-kindled animals. Thus, this protocol is useful for conveniently producing animal models of epilepsy.