HORMONAL AND GESTATIONAL PARAMETERS IN FEMALE RATS SUBMITTED TO THE PILOCARPINE MODEL OF EPILEPSY

Endocrine and reproductive alterations are frequently reported to occu r in women with temporal lobe epilepsy as well as in female rats in di fferent experimental models of limbic seizures. As previously reported , women with epilepsy have lower fertility rates than women without ep ilepsy (Tanganelli, P., Regesta, G., 1992. Neurology (suppl.) 42 (5), 89-93; Cummings, L.N., Guidice, L., Morrel, M.J., 1995. Epilepsia 36, 355-359). In order to investigate the possible substrate of endocrine alterations in epilepsy, hormonal and gestational parameters were stud ied in female rats submitted to the pilocarpine model of epilepsy. The results demonstrated that the oestrus cycle is altered following pilo carpine-induced status epilepticus and such alteration lasted for seve ral weeks. Progesterone, LH and FSH levels decreased and estradiol lev els increased si,significantly during the period of spontaneous and re current seizures. The frequency of seizures during pregnancy and lacta tion decreased. These results document that significant changes in gon adal, hypophyseal and hypothalamic hormones, as well as in sexual beha viour, occur following status epilepticus induced by pilocarpine admin istration. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.