Affiliations: Division of Neurological Surgery, Departments of Surgery, Neurology, Psychiatry and Pharmacology, University of South Florida College of Medicine, MDC Box 16, 12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., Tampa, FL 33612, USA | Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA | Department of Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA
Abstract: Neurobehavioral effects caused by the excitotoxin kainic acid (KA) have been characterized by convulsions including ‘wet dog shakes’ (WDS) with accompanying hippocampal degeneration in experimental animals. Accordingly, this model has been proposed for putative excitotoxin-mediated disorders, such as the temporal lobe epilepsy. There have been reports on age-dependent neurobehavioral effects of KA; however, little is known about possible correlations between neuropathology and behavioral responses to KA. The present study demonstrates that mature adult rats (12 months old) injected subcutaneously (s.c.) with KA (12 mg/kg) had severer damage to the hippocampal formation, i.e. CA3 region, compared with KA-treated young adult rats (2 months old). The mature adult animals also exhibited an earlier onset of WDS, a significantly higher number of WDS (P > 0.01), and severer convulsions compared with young adult rats. These findings indicate a positive correlation between KA-induced hippocampal damage and behavioral responses in young and mature adult rats.
Keywords: Kainic acid, Aging, N-methyl-D-aspartate, Wet dog shakes, Neurodegeneration, Hippocampus
