2.1. PTZ Model of Seizures

This study used 20–22-day-old male Wistar rats (35–40 g). All the experiments were carried out under the Guidelines on the Treatment of Laboratory Animals effective at the Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ethical permit number 13-k-a, 15 February 2018). These guidelines comply with EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments.

Acute seizures were induced by PTZ administration (70 mg/kg in saline; intraperitoneal (i.p.), Sigma Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA). Approximately 80% of treated rats had generalized tonic-clonic seizures lasting more than 45 min, i.e., exhibited status epilepticus. Only those animals were used in the experiments. The control rats were injected with saline. Gene expression level was measured 3 h and 1, 3, and 7 days after the administration of PTZ or saline (n = 4–7 animals per group). The total number of animals used in RT-qPCR experiment was 47 (i.e., limited to one 96-well PCR plate). Figure 1 summarizes the experimental outline.

Outline of animal experiments. Wistar rats were injected with PTZ (70 mg/kg) or saline vehicle (control) intraperitoneally at postnatal day (P) 20–22. n = 4–7 per group.