Limbic seizures increase cyclophilin mRNA levels in rat hippocampus

Limbic seizures lead to dramatic and specific modulation of mRNA levels for many genes in the hippocampus including immediate early, growth factor and neuropeptide genes. In the present study, the influence of hilus lesion (HL)-induced seizures on the abundance of mRNA coding for cyclophilin, a peptide prolyl isomerase, in rat hippocampus was analyzed. By nuclease protection analysis a significant increase in cyclophilin mRNA levels was observed in the hippocampal dentate gyrus/CA1 subfield following HL-induced seizures. The increase began 6 h post-HL, reached a maximum (2.5-fold) at 12 h post-HL and returned to control values by 48 h post-HL. Cyclophilin mRNA levels remained stable in the cerebral cortex throughout the same seizure and post-seizure activity time span.