Abstract:

Objective To investigate the activation of p38/p53 signaling pathway in hippocampal neuronsof rats with status epilepticus（SE）and its protective effect on neuron injury after epilepsy. Methods Forty ratswere randomly divided into normal control group，epilepsy group，inhibitor group and dimethylsulfoxide solventcontrol group. A lithium chloride ⁃ pilocarpine epileptic rat model was established. HE staining was used to detectthe pathological changes of neurons in hippocampal CA1 region of rats and immunohistochemical staining to observethe staining of p38/p⁃p38 and p53/p⁃p53 positive cells. Results Many degenerated and necrotic neuron cells werefound in hippocampal CA1 region of SE rats，and they were obviously decreased in number in the inhibition group.The number of p38/p ⁃p38 positive cells in the epilepsy group increased at each time point compared with thecontrol group，reaching the peak at hour 2 and beginning to decrease at hour 6. The number of positive cells in theinhibitor group was smaller than that in epilepsy group. Across the time points，the number of p53/p⁃p53 positivecells in the epilepsy group at each time point was larger than that in control group；The longer seizure lasted，thenumber of positive cells the larger；The number of positive cells in the inhibitor group was smaller than that in theepilepsy group. Conclusion P38 inhibitor has certain protective effect on SE rat neuron injury，probably becausethe p53 gene⁃mediated apoptosis pathway is blocked in mechanism.

Key words:

epilepsy, signal path way, p38, p53, neuron