Kainic acid-induced seizures cause neuronal death in infant rats pretreated with lipopolysaccharide.

A major controversy in human epilepsy is whether severe seizures in infants or young children cause brain damage and subsequent epilepsy. Kainic acid (KA) produces severe seizures in infant rats, but hippocampal neuronal death and mossy fibre sprouting have not been previously demonstrated. There are similarities between lipopolysaccharide (LPS) pretreatment and KA-induced seizures in rats and the febrile convulsion of young children, in that both processes are associated with an immune stimulus and seizures. Infant rats, co-treated with LPS and KA, showed hippocampal neuronal death and mossy fibre sprouting. Taken together, our results suggest that severe febrile convulsion of young children may cause hippocampal damage and synaptic reorganization.