The Antiepileptic and Neuroprotective Effect of the Thymus Vulgaris Against the Pentylentetrazol Kindled Model of the Seizures in the Male Rats

Background: In traditional medicine, a large number of plants have been used to cure neurodegenerative diseases such as seizure and other memory-related disorders. In the present study, the effect of Thymus vulgaris extract (TVE) on the epileptic animal model was studied. Methods: In this experimental study, twenty-four male Wistar rats were randomly selected and were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental groups were treated by the intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of 50 and 100, mg/kg of TVE. The control negative group received normal saline and the control positive group received phenobarbital (30 mg/kg,i.p.). Kindling was successfully induced by repeated administration of a sub-convulsant dose of pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) (35 mg/kg; i.p.) at an interval of each 48 h in 30 days. In addition, after the end of the experiment, the rats were put to death and their brains were removed for the histological study. Findings: The ANOVA demonstrated that compared to the control group, the TVE delayed the initiation and duration of the tonic, clonic and tonic-clonic seizures and significantly reduced the tonic and clonic seizures. Furthermore, the administration of the TVE significantly prevented the production of the dark neurons in different areas of the hippocampus compared to PTZ group. Conclusion: It is concluded that the TVE possess beneficial effects on learning and memory impairments in repeated seizures model which is accompanied by antioxidant effects in the brain.

کلیدواژه ها:

Thymus vulgaris ، Antiepileptogenic ، Kindling development ، Hippocampus ، pentylenetetrazol