Abstracts

Rationale: Individuals report memory deficits and disturbances as a major quality of life concern. Most studies have focused on the long-term effects of kainate (KA) induced status epilepticus (continuous seizures) on learning and memory. We examined the acute effects of a single KA induced seizure on learning and memory following a single seizure episode.

Methods: Male and female C57BL/6J mice underwent Delay Fear Conditioning one or six hours after cessation of seizures following 10mg/kg i.p injection of kainic acid. Mice were tested for contextual and cued memory either 24 hours or one week after seizure induction.

Results: KA induced seizures resulted in a contextual fear memory deficit 24 hours later for both one- and six-hour training cohorts. Mice that received KA seizures had a deficit in contextual fear memory when trained one hour later (p < .05), but there was no effect of KA nor training time for cued fear memory 24 hours after seizure induction. One week after seizure induction, only mice that seized one hour prior to training showed a cued fear memory deficit compared to saline controls trained at the same time and both KA and saline controls trained six hours after recovery, p < .05. Levels of AKT, pAKT, S6, and pS6 were measured by western blotting as indicators of alterations in the mTOR signaling pathway in the hippocampus. Twenty-four hours after seizure induction there was an overall decrease in total AKT for KA mice compared to controls, p < 0.01. This decrease was not present one week later. No alterations in total S6 were observed at either time point. KA increased levels of pS6/S6 and pAKT/AKT 24 hours after seizure induction compared to controls,