Curcumin Lowers the Accelerated Speed of Epileptogenesis by Traumatic Brain Injury.

BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury or TBI can underlie epilepsy. Prevention of PTE has been of great interest to scientists. Given the antiepileptic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of curcumin, we examined whether this compound can affect epileptogenesis in rats after TBI.

METHODS: Curcumin was injected once a day for two weeks. TBI was induced in the temporal cortex of anesthetized rats using a CCI device. One day after TBI, PTZ, 35 mg/kg, was injected i.p. every other day until manifestation of generalized seizures. The number of PTZ injections was then recorded. Moreover, the extent of cortical and hippocampal IL-1β and GFAP expression in the epileptic rats were measured by Western blot analysis.

RESULTS: Curcumin 50 and 150 mg/kg prevented the development of kindling, wherase TBI accelerated the rate of kindling. Curcumin 20 mg/kg prohibited kindling facilitation by TBI, and reduced the expression of IL-1β and GFAP induced by TBI.

CONCLUSION: Curcumin can stop the acceleration of epileptogenesis after TBI in rats. Inhibiting hippocampal and cortical overexpression of IL-1β and GFAP seems to be involved in this activity.