Abstract:
The present study was designed to observe the effect of PTZ on expression of caspsae-3, and to evaluate the
neuroprotective role of vitamin C (vit-C) against PTZ-induced apoptotic neurodegeneration in adult rat brain.
We observed that administration of a single conclusive dose of pentylenetetrazol (PTZ 50mg/kg) in adults rats
induced epileptic seizure and increased activation of caspase-3 and caused neuronal death. Further, rats were
injected with vit-C (250 mg/kg) 30 min before PTZ injection. The protective effect of vit-C against PTZinduced apoptotic neurodegeneration in adult rat brain was observed using Western blot analysis and Nissl
staining. The results showed that conclusive dose of PTZ-induced seizure, increased expression of caspase-3
and neuronal apoptosis in adult rat brain. Whereas, the pretreatment of vit-C along with PTZ showed
significantly decreased expression of caspase-3 as compare to control group. Finally, our results indicated that
vit-C can prevent some of the deleterious effect of seizure and neuronal degeneration induced by PTZ in adult
rat brain.
