Comparison of epilepsy models reproduced by penicillin and kainic acid

Objective To establish the mouse models of acute epilepsy induced by kainic acid or penicillin, and explore the characteristics and condition of application of the 2 agents. Methods Ninety healthy male Kunming mice were selected and divided randomly into the normal saline group (n=10) and penicillin-induced group (n=40) and kainic acid-induced group (n=40). The kainic acid-induced group were treated with 10 mg/kg kainic acid by intraperitoneal injection, the penicillin-induced group were treated with 7× 106 U/kg penicillin by intraperitoneal injection, and the ones in the normal saline group were treated with 35 μL/g normal saline by intraperitoneal injection. After injection, seizure was observed continuously and graded in the following 5 h and monitored by electroencephalogram (EEG). Results Totally 80 mice of the penicillin- and kainic acid-induced groups entered the final analysis. It was noted that the latency of the appearance of the status epilepticus by kainic acid was shorter than that by penicillin (P＜0.05), and the mortality rate was lower as well (P＜0.05). Conclusions Acute epilepsy model reproduced by kainic acid might be superior to the one by penicillin because of the similar behavior and EEG features with human temporal epilepsy. Key words: Penicillin;  Kainic acid;  Epilepsy;  Mice;  Models