Effect of penicillin induced epilepsy seizure on granulare cell layer of dentate gyrus in rat: A stereological study

Abstract

Nonstereological methods have been the prefrence of investigators in the field of neuron counting. Development of stereological methods in biological sciences improved the reliability of neuroscientific investigations. This study was designed to investigate the effect of penicillin induced epilepsy seizure on total cell number of granulare cell layer of dentate gyrus. Optical fractionator method, one of the unbiased stereological methods, was used to estimate the total cell number. Seizure was observed and recorded in EEG 3-4 minutes after intracortical injection of 500 IU penicillin-G. Rat brains were removed one week later from penicillin-G introduction. The number of neurons in the granulare cell layer of dentate gyrus was less in the experimental group (111728±14110) compared to that in the control group (120228±16718). This difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05).