The protective effect of carvacrol on kainic acid-induced model of temporal lobe epilepsy in male rat

Background and Objective: Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a chronic neurological disorder with spontaneous recurrent seizures and abnormal intracranial waves. Since the role of oxidative stress in the occurrence of epilepsy is inevitable, it seems that the use of antioxidants can prevent some of the complications resulting from this disease. This study was designed to assess the protective effect of carvacrol on seizure behavior and intracranial electroencephalographic (iEEG) recordings. Materials and Methods: In this study, male Wistar rats were randomly allocated into four groups: Sham-operated, carvacrol (10 mg/kg) pretreated-sham-operated, kainic acid (0.8 ?g/?l), and carvacrol (10 mg/kg) pretreated-kainic acid. In this study, we evaluated the status epilepticus and seizures according to Racine?s scores and recorded iEEG for investigating the antiepileptic effect of carvacrol in kainite-injected rats. Results: The seizures behavior (status epilepticus and spontaneous seizures) appeared in kainate-injected rats and iEEG amplitude increased as compared to sham group (p < 0.01). Pretreatment of kainate-injected rats with carvacrol significantly reduced their Racine?s scores of seizures behavior and intracranial waves amplitude (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Collectively, the results of this study indicate that carvacrol is able to prevent some of the epilepsy disease complications in an experimental model of temporal lobe epilepsy.