APOPTOTIC AND NECROTIC CELL-DEATH FOLLOWING KINDLING-INDUCED SEIZURES

The study was designed to determine which type of cell death occurs fo llowing kindling induced seizures, and to determine which neurons die. For this purpose seizures were kindled from the entorhinal cortex. Fo llowing a range of 5-85 stage 5 seizures, rats were sacrificed, and th e tissue was prepared for analysis. The TUNEL and silver impregnation methods were used to identify apoptotic or necrotic cell death, respec tively. These methods were subsequently combined with immunocytochemis try, to determine if diseased neurons expressed somatostatin or the NM DA receptor (NMDAR1). The tissue analysis demonstrated that following kindling induced seizures. 1) hippocampal and extrahippocampal neurons die, 2) some neurons die through apoptosis, others through necrosis, and 3) some of the diseased neurons express somatostatin, others the N MDAR1 and that both subpopulations of neurons are present at hippocamp al and extrahippocampal sites.