The impact of piracetam and octreotide on hippocampal expression of BAX and BCL2 genes in pentylenetetrazole-induced epileptic rats

Objective: Piracetam and octreotide as nootropic and neuroprotective medicines were used in the epileptic rats to evaluate their impacts on the hippocampal expression of BAX and BCL2 genes. Materials and Methods: Six experimental groups of adult rats were pretreated for 7 days as follows: two piracetam groups (30 and 100 mg/kg/day), two octreotide groups (50 and 100 mg/kg/day), positive control group (injected with diazepam, 2 mg/kg, single dose before pentylenetetrazole injection) and negative control group (injected with normal saline). Seizures were induced with a single injection of pentylenetetrazole (PTZ, 60 mg/kg) after pretreatments. Signs of resulted seizures were classified according to the Racine scale. The BAX and BCL2 transcripts were measured in the hippocampus by quantitative real-time PCR. Results: A delayed onset time of the seizures (stage 1 of Racine scale) and shorter time of the tonic-clonic seizures (stage 5 of Racine’s scale) were observed in the piracetam and octreotide groups as compared to negative control group (P 0.05). The BAX transcript was higher in the positive control and octreotide (100 mg/kg) groups than other groups (P 0.05). The BCL2 transcript was higher in the positive control, piracetam (100 mg/kg) and octreotide (100 mg/kg) groups than the negative control group (P 0.05). The BAX/BCL2 ratio was lower in the positive control and piracetam (30 and 100 mg/kg) groups than other groups (P 0.05). Conclusion: BAX/BCl2 ratio as an indicator of progressive apoptosis was attenuated by the piracetam in the hippocampus of epileptic rats while useful effects of the octreotide are independent of BAX/BCl2.