The reliability of monoamine levels in the kindled brain.

Possible changes in the monoamine levels of the brain in relation to seizure susceptibility has been a subject of controversy for the past three decades. Since kindling was introduced as an ideal experimental model of human epilepsy, correlative studies between the monoamines and the acquisition of epileptogenesis have been strongly reinforced. The reported results, however, did not necessarily correspond among individual investigators.' :j Unless it is made clear whether or not the disagreement was due to the method they employed for quantification, the significance of the obtained results may remain obscure. We carried out a comparative study in order to explore the inter-method variability of measurement using rats placed on long-term kindling. What should concern us first is the comparison of the measured values between the brains of kindled animals and controls. When non-treated naive rats were chosen in place of sham-operated rats, there were subtle differences between the two groups. First, the level of dopamine content of the sham group was lower as compared to that of the non-treated group so that the sham animals are preferable to serve as control to the non-treated ones. The second problem that concerned us was the technical matter as to how the ani-