The aim of our study was to investigate the hippocampus and dentate gyrus neuropathological features of spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHR) with epilepsy.
Methods: Animals were randomly divided into 4 groups: control Wistar, Wistar with epilepsy, control SHR and SHR with epilepsy. The pilocarpine model of epilepsy was used in this experiement. After spontaneous recurrent seizures, all animals were perfused and their brains processed for histological analysis through Nissl and neo-Timm methods.
Results: In the Wistar rats with epilepsy we observed cell loss in hippocampal subfields CA1, CA3 and hilus of the dentate gyrus when compared with control animals. In the SHR with epilepsy we observed hippocampal formation atrophy with ventricular dilatation. No morphological alterations were observed in SHR and Wistar control rats. The neo-Timm staining of hippocampal formation has shown supragranular sprouting in Wistar and SHR with epilepsy. CONCLUSION We found neuropathological alterations in hippocampal formation in Wistar with epilepsy and SHR with epilepsy, suggesting that epilepsy per se or associated to hypertention are able to cause neuronal damage.