Effect of Ursodeoxycholic Acid on Pentylenetetrazole Kindling and Kindling Induced Memory Impairment in Rat

Epilepsy is one of the most common diseases of the brain. Because of the drug resistance, finding new drugs is important. Recently, the beneficial effects of Ursodeoxycholic acid on brain disorders have been considered. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Ursodeoxycholic acid(UDCA)on the Pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) induced kindling, and related learning and memory impairments on Morris water maze.
This research is an experimental study. In this study animals were divided into 4 groups. The first (n=7) and the second (n=9)groups have received three injections of 0.5 ml NaCl or 50 mg/kg of UDCA respectively and third (n=7) and fourth (n=9) groups have received fifteen injections of 0.5 ml NaCl or 50 mg/kg of UDCA respectively. All injections were given intraperitoneally(ip)(every 48 hours). In all groups, chemical kindling were started after third injections. Twenty-four hour after the last injection, spatial memory was investigated in the Morris water maze.
FINDING: Fifteen injections of UDCA significantly reduced the seizure stage from 3.5±0.17 to 3.08±0.11 and duration of stages five from 12.37±1.21 to 8.43±1.09 and increased time to reach the stage five seizures from 1021.65±72.07 to 1252.41±49.63 as compared to control group. However, three injections of UDCA have no effect on the kindling process. Three and fifteen injections of UDCA had no effect on spatial learning. In contrast to a 15 injections group, three time administration of UDCA significantly increased reference memory from 18.72±1.2 s to 26.11±1.8 s.
Ursodeoxycholic acid inhibits chemical kindling and improves kindling induced memory impairment.