Neurobiology of Disease (Dec 2021)

Substantial outcome improvement using a refined pilocarpine mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy

  • Alexandre Vigier,
  • Nicolas Partouche,
  • François J. Michel,
  • Valérie Crépel,
  • Thomas Marissal

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 161
p. 105547

Abstract

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Systemic pilocarpine treatment is one of the most reliable means of inducing temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). However, the traditional pilocarpine injection protocol using mice was associated with a high death rate, possibly because of cardiorespiratory collapse following status epilepticus (SE). To prevent this, we developed a modified procedure of pilocarpine SE induction, which included a single injection of a moderate dose of caffeine during the induction phase. That new protocol was based on the use of young male mice as well as on a refined Racine's scale. Using that protocol, we report a substantially increased survival rate, thus enabling the generation of a large cohort of mice that exhibited cardinal histological (e.g., mossy fiber sprouting) and electrophysiological (e.g., chronic interictal events and ictal seizures) characteristics associated with TLE. In conclusion, our refined caffeine- and pilocarpine-based protocol substantially improves the outcome of the reliable pilocarpine mouse model of TLE.

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