ABSTRACT

Cytokines are thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of many neurological diseases such as epilepsy. It is predicted that ınterleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6 levels in brain tissue are effective in the initiation and maintenance of epileptic seizures. However, there is no study addressing the inflammatory process in the lung in epileptic conditions. It was aimed to contribute to the mechanism of respiratory pathologies accompanying epilepsy in this study.

The chemical pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) has been used to develop epileptic seizures in rats. To examine the effect of seizures on the formation of inflammation in the lung, the expression levels of IL-1β and IL-6 were measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction.

We found that the expression levels of IL-6 and IL-1β in the lung tissue of rats in the animal model of epilepsy induced by PTZ increased significantly. In addition, we found that both IL-6 and IL-1β mRNA expression increased at a higher rate in epileptic females than males.

This is the first study evaluating the IL-1β and IL-6 expression levels in the lung. Our results support the existence of an inflammatory state in epileptic patients. The significance of our findings will be supported by future studies on pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory responses in the lung.

Keywords: Animal model, xepilepsy, xinterleukin-1β, interleukin-6, lung