Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 5, 2026
Continuous Video Electroencephalogram during Hypoxia-Ischemia in Neonatal Mice
Published on: June 11, 2020
Effects of oxygen insufflation during pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus on mortality, tissue damage and seizures
Lorenz Müller1, Steffen Müller1, Tina Sellmann1
1Oscar Langendorff Institute of Physiology, University of Rostock, Germany.
Purpose:
This prospective, randomized study was performed to investigate the effects of oxygen (O2) treatment during sustained epileptic activity on mortality, subsequent seizure frequency, and neuronal damage.
Methods:
Status epilepticus (SE) was induced by intraperitoneal injection of 340mg/kg pilocarpine, and terminated by diazepam after 40min. During SE, rats were randomized to O2 treatment (insufflation rate of 1.5l/min O2) during SE or normal air conditions. Outcome measures were SE-related mortality, seizure occurrence, mossy fiber sprouting, neuronal cell loss and expression of 27-kDa heat-shock protein (Hsp27).
Results:
O2-treated and O2-untreated animals did not differ with respect to SE latency, diazepam dose required to stop SE. While 7/38 rats died during SE in the O2-untreated group, very little mortality (1/38) occurred in the O2-treated group (P<0.05). However, within 1h after SE termination, seven O2-treated rats died which was not observed in the O2-untreated group indicating no significant difference in overall mortality. There was a tendency towards lower seizure rate in the O2-treated group at one month after pilocarpine-induced SE. Three months after SE, however, seizure rates were no longer different between both groups. Moreover, mossy fiber sprouting, neuronal cell loss and Hsp27 expression did not differ between O2-treated and O2-untreated groups.
Conclusion:
Our findings indicate that O2 treatment might delay the relative risk of epileptic seizures following an initial brain injury, but it may also lead to a rather unfavorably increased heterogeneity of epileptogenesis in experimental studies.
