Assessment of learning and memory in intrahippocampal kainate epileptic rats following berberine administration

Background and Objective: Epilepsy is the second most common disease of the central nervous system. Since memory disturbance is rather commin in epileptic patients, 20, the goal of this study was to assess the effect of berberine on memory deficit in epileptic rats.

Materials and Methods: In this study, 32 male rats weighing 190-240 g were divided into 4 groups: sham, sham receiving berberine, epileptic, and epileptic receiving berberine. Berberine was daily administered at a dose of 25 mg/kg IP, started one week prior to surgery up to one hour before surgery. For induction of epilepsy, 1g of kainate/rat dissolved in normal saline was injected. At the end of fifth week, learning and memory in passive avoidance (shuttle box) and Y-maze tests was assesed.

Results: There were no significant differences between the groups regarding initial latency. However, step through latence in epileptic group was significantly lower than the sham group (p < 0.05). In epileptic group treated with berberine this parameter was significantly more than the epileptic group (p < 0.05). In addition, alternation behavior in the epileptic group decreased (p < 0.05) and this was not improved following berberine pretreatment. In addition, seizure intensity in the epileptic group pretreated with berberine reduced versus epileptic rats (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that administration of berberine in temporal lobe epilepsy improves memory and learning in passive avoidance test, but does not improve spatial memory in Y maze task and it has also anticonvulsant effect.