Levetiracetam protects hippocampal neurons in culture against hypoxia-induced injury

Abstract

Many experimental studies indicate that some antiepileptic drugs possess neuroprotective properties in varied models of neuronal injury. Levetiracetam is a second-generation antiepileptic drug with a novel mechanism of action. In the present study, we evaluated the putative neuroprotective effect of levetiracetam on primary hippocampal cultures at seven day <i>in vitro</i>. Cell death was induced by incubation of neural cultures in hypoxic conditions over 24 hours. Neuronal injury was assessed by morphometric investigation of death/total ratio of neurons in light microscopy using Trypan blue staining and by evaluation of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release in the culture medium. Our results indicate that pre-conditioning of hippocampal cultures with high concentrations of levetiracetam (100 &#956;M and 300 &#956;M) protects neurons against hypoxia-induced death. Two-fold higher number of neurons remained viable as compared to control cultures without drug. Lack of neuroprotective action of the drug on hippocampal neural cultures was observed, when a low concentration (10 &#956;M) of levetiracetam was used. <i>(Folia Histochemica et Cytobiologica 2011, Vol. 49, No. 1, 148&#8211;152)

Keywords

• levetiracetam
• neuroprotection
• hippocampal culture
• hypoxia