The effect of swimming exercise and hesperidin on hippocampal cell damage after pentylenetetrazol induced prenatal seizures in rats

Prenatal seizures cause the production of free radicals in fetal nervous system and selective neuronal death of hippocampus. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of swimming exercise (EX) and hesperidin administration (HES) as a potent antioxidant on hippocampal cell damage in rats following pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) induced prenatal seizures.

In this experimental study, infants from 20 females pregnant Wistar rats were randomly put in 5 groups of control, PTZ+NS, PTZ+HES, PTZ+EX, PTZ+HES+EX. From the 14th day of pregnancy, animals were exposed to repeated PTZ injection (50mg/kg, intraperitoneal) for 5 consecutive days. From the first day of pregnancy to the term delivery, swimming exercise training with moderate intensity and 3 times a week and daily hesperidin gavage for 3 weeks was done. Finally, the hippocampal cell density was evaluated in different hippocampus areas of male infants at postnatal day 30.

The increase of cell damage and decrease of cellular density in different regions of hippocampus was seen in PTZ+NS group than the control group (p<0.05). Meanwhile, the increase of hippocampal cellular density and decrease of mortality of pyramidal neurons was also observed in PTZ+HES+EX group compared to PTZ+NS group (p<0.05).

The interaction of swimming exercise training and hesperidin have neuroprotective effects in rats’ prenatal seizure models.