Induction and Treatment of Pilocarpine-Induced Status Epilepticus in Rodents

Lithium chloride (LiCl, 127 mg/kg, i.p., Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) was administered to the animals 19 h before the injection of pilocarpine (25 mg/kg, i.p., Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) to cause status epilepticus (SE) [43 (link)]. Scopolamine (2 mg/kg, i.p., Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) was injected 30 min before the injection of pilocarpine. SE has been reported to occur 20–30 min after pilocarpine injection [44 (link)]. Animals were housed one per cage for individual observation. According to Racine’s method, animals exhibited up to five symptoms: (1) mouth and facial movements, (2) head nodding, (3) forelimb clonus, (4) rearing with forelimb clonus, and (5) rearing and falling with forelimb clonus. When the fifth symptom occurred, we judged that the seizure had occurred completely [45 (link)]. Two hours after the start of SE, diazepam (Valium, 10 mg/kg, i.p., Hoffman la Roche, Neuilly sur-Seine) was administered. Even after the diazepam treatment, repeated seizure behavior was observed in some animals [46 (link)]. When recurrent severe seizure was observed, additional diazepam was injected (2 mg/kg, i.p.) to stop the remaining seizure activity [47 (link)] (Figure S1).