The effect of acute and chronic harmaline administration on penicillin induced epileptiform activity in rats

In this study, the effect of short and long term administration of harmaline on penicillin G induced experimental epilepsy model in rats was investigated electrophysiologically. 84 adult male Wistar rats were used in the study. After the rats were divided into two groups, each group was divided into 6 different subgroups as sham, control (penicillin), only harmaline and 10, 50 and 100 mg / kg doses. Electrocorticographic data obtained from the records were analyzed with PowerLab Chart v.8 software program. At the same time, latency of onset of first epileptiform activity, spike wave frequency and spike wave amplitude of epileptiform activity were analyzed statistically. In addition, the amount of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione reductase (GR) were determined by ELISA method in order to determine the effects of harmaline on antioxidant mechanism. Statistical analysis was performed by one way Anova test. In both groups, the time to onset of seizure was increased statistically compared to the control group (p <0.05). Antiepileptic effect was found to be statistically significant in penicillin G induced epileptiform activity in rats with the short term harmaline group compared to the control and other groups (p <0.05). In addition, antioxidant capacity of long term administration of harmaline was statistically significant compared to control and other groups (p <0.05). In the present study, it is suggested that the harmaline, a monoaminoxidase inhibitor, is antiepileptic in the experimental epilepsy model created with penicillin G in rats and may be used as antiepileptic in the future.