Influence of Xingnaojing Injection on the Expression of c-fos and c-jun Proteins in Brains of Rats in a Kindling Model of Epilepsy Chronically Induced by Pentetrazol

Objective: To investigate the molecular biological mechanism of the antiepileptic effect of Xingnaojing (XNJ) injection on a rat kindling model of epilepsy (KME). Methods: Fifty healthy 6-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into the following five groups: blank control (BC) group, model (M) group, XNJ injection (XI) group, phenobarbital injection (PI) group and XNJ combined with phenobarbital (XP) group. There were 10 rats in each group. The intervention drugs were administered 30 min before the model-building drugs once a day for 5 weeks. The model-building drug pentetrazol was given to each group as an intraperitoneal injection 30 min after the use of the intervention drug once a day for 4 weeks for KME establishment (except for the BC group). The BC group was given physiological saline instead. All drugs were injected intraperitoneally. The behaviors of each group of rats were observed after the use of the model-building drugs for 1 h every day. The last kindling test was carried out at the end of week 5. Then, c-fos and c-jun protein expressions in the rat brains of each group were observed and analyzed by immunohistochemistry at the end of the experiment. Results: There was a large number of cells positive for the c-fos and c-jun proteins in the rat brains of the M group. Compared with the M group, the expression level of the c-fos and c-jun proteins was lower in the rat brains of the XI and PI groups (p < 0.01). There was no statistical difference between the XI and PI groups (p > 0.05). The number of positive cells in the rat brains of the XP group was even smaller than that of the XI or PI groups. Conclusion: The antiepileptic effect of the XNJ injection on the rat KME is probably related to its interruption function on the expression of the c-fos and c-jun proteins in rat brains.