Resveratrol Treatment after Status Epilepticus Restrains Neurodegeneration and Abnormal Neurogenesis with Suppression of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation

Antiepileptic drug therapy, though beneficial for restraining seizures, cannot thwart status epilepticus (SE) induced neurodegeneration or down-stream detrimental changes. We investigated the efficacy of resveratrol (RESV) for preventing SE-induced neurodegeneration, abnormal neurogenesis, oxidative stress and inflammation in the hippocampus. We induced SE in young rats and treated with either vehicle or RESV, commencing an hour after SE induction and continuing every hour for three-hours on SE day and twice daily thereafter for 3 days. Seizures were terminated in both groups two-hours after SE with a diazepam injection. In contrast to the vehicle-treated group, the hippocampus of animals receiving RESV during and after SE presented no loss of glutamatergic neurons in hippocampal cell layers, diminished loss of inhibitory interneurons expressing parvalbumin, somatostatin and neuropeptide Y in the dentate gyrus, reduced aberrant neurogenesis with preservation of reelin + interneurons, lowered concentration of oxidative stress byproduct malondialdehyde and pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha, normalized expression of oxidative stress responsive genes and diminished numbers of activated microglia. Thus, 4 days of RESV treatment after SE is efficacious for thwarting glutamatergic neuron degeneration, alleviating interneuron loss and abnormal neurogenesis, and suppressing oxidative stress and inflammation. These results have implications for restraining SE-induced chronic temporal lobe epilepsy.