Spatiotemporal changes of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit levels in rats with pentylenetetrazole-induced seizures.

The aim of this study was to examine the expression profiles of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor subunits in rats during seizure development and kindled process induced by pentylenetetrazole (PTZ). Using quantitative Western blotting, the levels of NR1, NR2A and NR2B subunits were measured in the cortex and hippocampus of rats at different times after PTZ injection. In the early seizure developmental process, both NR1 and NR2A were markedly increased in the cortex, and NR1 was significantly increased in the hippocampus. On the other hand, in the kindled process both NR1 and NR2A decreased in the cortex and hippocampus. However, the NR2B subunit had no appreciable change in both the seizure developmental and kindled process. Therefore, these results showed that expression of NMDA receptors undergoes subunit- and region-related changes in the developmental and kindled seizure of rats induced by PTZ.