Effect of selenium pre-treatment on evoked cortical afterdischarges in young rats

Prenatal or perinatal hypoxia is among the most frequent pathogenic factors of encephalopaties. It can induce wide-range of morphological, biochemical, energetic and functional alterations. Accordingly we tested changes of excitability of the sensorimotor cortex in 12, 25 and 35-day-old rats exposed and not exposed to short-term (1 hour) hypobaric and normobaric hypoxia. We studied whether sodium selenate (0,26 mg/kg b.w.) can influence character and/or intensity of evoked cortical afterdischarges or if a pre-treatment by selenium changes effects of hypoxia on such seizures. According to the results we can conclude that in our experiment arrangement sodium selenate only partially alters duration of evoked cortical afterdischarges.