Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 30, 2026
The Pilocarpine Model of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and EEG Monitoring Using Radiotelemetry System in Mice
Published on: February 27, 2018
Behavioral, morphologic, and electroencephalographic evaluation of seizures induced by intrahippocampal
Marcio de A Furtado1, Glaucia K Braga, José A C Oliveira
1Neurophysiology and Experimental Neuroethology Laboratory, Physiology Department, Ribeirão Preto School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, 14049-900 Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
Purpose:
We studied, by means of video-EEG and neo-Timm histochemistry, the behavioral, electrophysiologic, and structural characteristics of seizures induced by intrahippocampal microinjection of pilocarpine (HIP-PILO), a selective model of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).
Methods:
We investigated the behavioral and electrophysiologic (hippocampus and amygdala EEG) evaluation of status epilepticus (SE) induced by HIP-PILO and the consequent spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRSs). We evaluated hippocampal structural rearrangements after SE by means of neo-Timm staining.
Results:
HIP-PILO induced SE in 17 (71%) of 24 animals. Although three animals displayed spontaneous remission of SE (not used in analysis) before the established SE duration (90 min), none of those undergoing SE died. Of SE animals, 10 (71%) of 14 had SRSs. All animals with SE had clear-cut mossy fiber sprouting (MFS) in the inner molecular layer of the dentate gyrus and epileptiform activity in hippocampus and amygdala.
Conclusions:
HIP-PILO rats displayed SE, SRS, MFS, and limbic epileptiform activity, without animal loss after SE. Thus, our data support this as a selective and efficient model of TLE.
