The impact of piracetam and octreotide on hippocampal expression of BAX and BCL2 genes in pentylenetetrazole-induced epileptic rats

Piracetam and octreotide as nootropic and neuroprotective medicines were used in the epileptic rats to evaluate their impacts on the hippocampal expression of BAX and BCL2 genes.
Six experimental groups of adult rats were pretreated for 7 days as follows: two piracetam groups (30 and 100 mg/kg/day), two octreotide groups (50 and 100 mg/kg/day), positive control group (injected with diazepam, 2 mg/kg, single dose before pentylenetetrazole injection) and negative control group (injected with normal saline). Seizures were induced with a single injection of pentylenetetrazole (PTZ, 60 mg/kg) after pretreatments. Signs of resulted seizures were classified according to the Racine scale. The BAX and BCL2 transcripts were measured in the hippocampus by quantitative real-time PCR.
A delayed onset time of the seizures (stage 1 of Racine scale) and shorter time of the tonic-clonic seizures (stage 5 of Racine's scale) were observed in the piracetam and octreotide groups as compared to negative control group (P<0.05). The BAX transcript was higher in the positive control and octreotide (100 mg/kg) groups than other groups (P<0.05). The BCL2 transcript was higher in the positive control, piracetam (100 mg/kg) and octreotide (100 mg/kg) groups than the negative control group (P<0.05). The BAX/BCL2 ratio was lower in the positive control and piracetam (30 and 100 mg/kg) groups than other groups (P<0.05).
BAX/BCl2 ratio as an indicator of progressive apoptosis was attenuated by the piracetam in the hippocampus of epileptic rats while useful effects of the octreotide are independent of BAX/BCl2.