Chronic Epilepsy Model in C57BL/6 Mice

A total of 118 five-week-old male C57BL/6 mice (18–22 g) were used for the generation of chronic epilepsy models. A single systemic injection of pilocarpine (400 mg/kg, intraperitoneal, Sigma, St. Louis, MO, USA) was given to each mouse for the induction of SE, as described previously [17 (link)–19 ]. To reduce peripheral muscarinic effects, methylscopolamine (1 mg/kg, intraperitoneal, Sigma, St. Louis, MO, USA) was administered to the mice 30 min before the pilocarpine injection. To interrupt the prolonged seizure, diazepam (5 mg/kg, intraperitoneal) was injected at 40 min after the onset of SE. SE was defined as continuous tonic-clonic seizures following several discontinuous convulsive seizures (stage ≥ 4) [20 (link)].