The animal models of seizures and/or epilepsy are widely used to identify the pathomechanisms of the disease as well as to look for and test the new antiseizure therapies. The understanding of the mechanisms of action of new drugs and evaluation of their safety in animals require previous knowledge concerning the biomolecular anomalies characteristic for the particular model. Among different models of seizures, one of the most widely used is the kindling model that was also applied in our study. To examine the influence of multiple transauricular electroshocks on the biochemical composition of rat hippocampal formation, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) microspectrosopy was utilized. The chemical mapping of the main absorption bands and their ratios allowed us to detect significant anomalies in both the distribution and structure of main biomolecules for electrically stimulated rats. They included an increased relative content of proteins with β-sheet conformation (an increased ratio of the absorbance at the wavenumbers of 1635 and 1658 cm-1), a decreased level of cholesterol and/or its esters and compounds containing phosphate groups (a diminished intensity of the massif of 1360-1480 cm-1 and the band at 1240 cm-1), as well as increased accumulation of carbohydrates and the compounds containing carbonyl groups (increased intensity of the bands at 1080 and 1740 cm-1, respectively). The observed biomolecular abnormalities seem to be the consequence of lipid peroxidation promoted by reactive oxygen species as well as the mobilization of glucose that resulted from the increased demand to energy during postelectroshock seizures.
Keywords: Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy; biochemical anomalies; clonic and tonic seizures; rat kindling model of epilepsy; topographic and quantitative biochemical analysis; transauricural electroshocks.