[Morphometric study of motor cortex in acute focal epilepsy rat induced by coriaria lactone]

Twenty adult male Wistar rats were divided randomly into two groups (10 rats for LM, 10 rats for EM). The experimental rats were injected with convulsive dosage 3.8 microliters (19 micrograms) of coriaria lactone (CL) in the left cerebral motor cortex of the fore limb to induce acute focal epilepsy. The control rats were injected with normal saline of the same volume and at the same location. Motor cortex was cut coronally 2 hours after seizure and the layer V was studied morphometrically. Under x400 and x7000, take photos of focus, parafocus areas respectively for morphometric study. The number of neurons and neuroglias of layer V was counted in the LM photos. The number of presynaptic terminals of the neuropil was counted in the x7000 EM photos and the area fraction of each constitute in the neuropil was measured. The positive results demonstrated that the number of neurons and neuroglias in the focus and parafocus areas of the experimental animals was significantly lower than that in the control group, the side injected was lower than the other side and it was the lowest in the focus. The number and area fraction of the presynaptic terminals of the experimental rats at the focus neuropil decreased significantly, but the area fraction of neuroglial components increased significantly. The authors suggest that the convulsive dosage of CL may have toxic effect on some neurons and neuroglias and therefore to decrease the number of both types of cells and the number and area fraction of presynaptic terminals in the neuropil.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)