Effect of curcumin and hesperidin administrations during pregnancy on adulthood memory behaviors (double Y-maze test) of rat pups undergone hyperthermia-induced febrile seizure

Introduction: Febrile seizures are the most common neurologic disorder with a peak incidence between 6 and 18 months of age. Many different Pro-inflammatory factors such as cytokines, interleukin-1β (IL-Iβ), Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and IL-10, normally present in small amounts within the brain and increase after pathologic complications including during epileptic seizures that can act as transient and long-term pathologic factors. Hence, Use of anti-inflammatory agents has been targeted to reduce many neurological disorders as well as memory impairment. Curcumin and hesperidin are the major components derived from Curcuma longa and Poncirus trifoliata, respectively. These natural components have anti-inflammatory effects via blockade of some pro-inflammatory signaling cascades. The aim of this research was the evaluation of maternal curcumin and hesperidin administration during pregnancy period on adulthood memory behaviors in pups affected by hyperthermia-induced febrile seizures. Material and methods: Pregnant rats were orally administered curcumin (60 mg/kg), hesperidin (100 mg/kg) as experimental groups and control group was gavaged with drug vehicle (carboxymethyl cellulose). Newborn male rat pups of each parent were divided into two parts (no=7 for each), one part received repeated hyperthermia-febrile seizure for three days (p9-p11), and other parts were considered as control animals (intact). After p11, all animals were kept for 8 weeks, and then, memory function was evaluated in the Double-Y maze test. Data analyzed by one-way ANOVA with Tukey s post hoc test. Results: Statistical tests revealed that the number of entries to the goal box in the Carboxymethyl cellulose seizure group (CMCS) was significantly lower than the CMC group (p<0.001), also, treatments with curcumin and hesperidin causes a significant (p<0.001) increase in the number of entries to the goal box in comparison to the CMCS group. Conclusion:Repeated hyperthermia-febrile seizure can cause neuronal cell death in the hippocampus and subsequently memory impairment by increasing pro-inflammatory mediators. Thus, blockade of signaling molecules in pro-inflammatory cascades can reduce memory dysfunction. Recent studies have shown curcumin, and hesperidin attenuate inflammation by regulation of TLR4 and NFκB signaling pathways. The results of this study showed that the administration of these components, improve memory function in the double-Y maze test, but in the vehicle group that received febrile seizure, memory impairment was evident.

کلیدواژه ها:

Febrile seizure ، Curcumin ، Hesperidin ، Anti-inflammatory ، Double-Y maze