Epileptic Rats

AIM: Epileptic seizures lead to neuronal loss in the hippocampus. Experimental epilepsy can be induced by direct application of various chemicals to cerebral cortex. Nifedipine is an L-type voltage-dependent calcium channel blocker. In spite of several studies that show the seizure-suppressing effects of nifedipine, it has been shown that nifedipine does not suppress but conversely increases epileptic seizures. Similarly, contradictory effects of nifedipine have been reported, such as neuroprotection, failed neuroprotection and neurotoxicity. We therefore aimed to investigate the effect of nifedipine on hippocampal neuronal loss in penicillin induced epileptic rats in this study