Evaluation of ghrelin, nesfatin-1 and irisin levels of serum and brain after acute or chronic pentylenetetrazole administrations in rats using sodium valproate

ABSTRACT

Objectives: In this study, we aim to reveal the alterations (due to seizure) in the serum and brain levels of nesfatin-1, ghrelin and irisin after acute or chronic pentylenetetrazole administrations in rats using sodium valproate.

Methods: 35 Wistar albino rats were randomly divided into five groups: Control, Acute Pentylenetetrazole group (APTZ), Acute Pentylenetetrazole+ Valproate group (AVPA), PTZ kindling group (PTZk) and PTZ kindling+ Valproate group (KVPA). Serum and brain levels of ghrelin, nesfatin-1 and FNDC5/irisin were determined with ELISA.

Results: Serum levels of ghrelin were significantly decreased in APTZ and PTZk groups compared to the control (p < 0.01). There was a statistically significant decrease in brain levels of ghrelin in all groups compared to the control group (p < 0.01). There was a statistically significant increase in serum nesfatin-1 levels in the APTZ and PTZk groups compared to the control (p < 0.05). Serum levels of nesfatin-1 were similar to the control group in both the acute and the chronic treatment groups. There was a statistically significant increase in brain nesfatin-1 levels of the KVPA group compared to the control (p < 0.05). Serum and brain levels of FNDC5/irisin were found significantly increased in APTZ, AVPA and PTZk groups compared to the control (p < 0.01).

Conclusions: Statistically significant alterations were detected in the serum and brain levels of these three peptides in both the PTZ-induced chronic epilepsy model and acute seizure model. The results of this study may suggest that the increase in FNDC5/irisin and nesfatin-1 levels, and the decrease in ghrelin levels may contribute to seizure pathophysiology. However, further studies are needed in order to confirm our hypothesis.

KEYWORDS:

• Brain
• epilepsy
• ghrelin
• FNDC5/irisin
• kindling
• nesfatin-1
• pentylenetetrazole
• seizure

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Prof. Dr Sıddık Keskin for the statistical analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Fund of the Van Yuzuncu Yil University [grant number TSA-2017-5894].