Epilepsy research
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Human temporal lobe epilepsy is associated with complex partial seizures that can produce secondarily generalized seizures and motor convulsions. In some patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, the seizures and convulsions occur following a latent period after an initial injury and may progressively increase in frequency for much of the patient's life. Available animal models of temporal lobe epilepsy are produced by acute treatments that often have high mortality rates and/or are associated with a low proportion of animals developing spontaneous chronic motor seizures. ⋯ Therefore, multiple low-dose injections of kainate, which cause recurrent motor seizures for > or = 3 h, lead to the development of a chronic epileptic state that is characterized by (i) a latent period before the onset of chronic motor seizures, and (ii) a high but variable seizure frequency that initially increases with time after the first chronic seizure. This modification of the kainate-treatment protocol is efficient and relatively simple, and the properties of the chronic epileptic state appear similar to severe human temporal lobe epilepsy. Furthermore, the observation that seizure frequency initially increased as a function of time after kainate treatment supports the hypothesis that temporal lobe epilepsy can be a progressive syndrome.