A NERVE GROWTH-FACTOR PEPTIDE RETARDS SEIZURE DEVELOPMENT AND INHIBITS NEURONAL SPROUTING IN A RAT MODEL OF EPILEPSY

Kindling, an animal model of epilepsy wherein seizures are induced by subcortical electrical stimulation, results in the upregulation of neu rotrophin mRNA and protein in the adult rat forebrain and causes messy fiber sprouting in the hippocampus. Intraventricular infusion of a sy nthetic peptide mimic of a nerve growth factor domain that interferes with the binding of neurotrophins to their receptors resulted in signi ficant retardation of kindling and inhibition of messy fiber sprouting . These findings suggest a critical role for neurotrophins in both kin dling and kindling-induced synaptic reorganization.