Anticonvulsant effect of argan oil on pilocarpine model induced status epilepticus in wistar rats

Abstract

Argan oil (AO) is rich in oleic and linoleic acids, polyphenols, sterols, and tocopherols. This composition gives it numerous beneficial pharmacological effects such as hypolipemiant, hypotensive, and antiproliferative. Oxidative stress is a mechanism of cell death induced by seizures and status epilepticus (SE). This study aims at investigating AO effects on (i) latency to first seizure, seizure severity, weight loss, mortality rate, (ii) lipid peroxidation level, nitrite level, and catalase activity in the hippocampus after SE induced by pilocarpine (PC). Wistar rats (1-month old) were daily administered by oral gavage with AO (1 ml/100 g/day) or with NaCl 0.9% during 2 months before receiving PC (400 mg/kg). After the PC injection, all groups were observed for 24 h. The catalase activity, the lipid peroxidation, and nitrite concentrations were measured using spectrophotometric methods. AO pretreatment increased the latency to first seizures, decreased the weight loss, and reduced mortality rate after SE. AO pretreatment produces significant decrease of the lipid peroxidation and nitrite levels. On the contrary, AO increased the catalase activity in rat hippocampus after seizures. For the first time, our results suggest that AO pretreatment is capable of attenuating seizure severity and oxidative stress in the hippocampus of Wistar rats. This indicates that AO may exhibit a neuroprotection against the temporal lobe epilepsy. Further investigations are in progress to confirm this pharmacological property.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Argan oil
• Anticonvulsant
• Oxidative stress
• Hippocampus
• Status epilepticus
• Seizure

Acknowledgments

Authors would like to thank Mrs Fatima Ezzahrae Yacour for her assistance in the proof-reading of the paper, and Mr Ilias Marmouzi for his helpful guidance. A special gratitude goes to the dearest future daughter Raghad Bahbiti (24 weeks) for providing the motivation and inspiration needed to finish this work.

Disclaimer statements

Contributors All authors contributed equally.

Funding None.

Conflict of interest The authors declare no conflict-of-interest.

Ethics approval This work has been fully realized in all experimental procedures and were performed according to the NIH guide for the care and use of laboratory animals.

ORCiD

Youssef Bahbiti http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4488-216X