Bicuculline Methiodide in the Blood-Brain Barrier-Epileptogen Model of Epilepsy

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Abstract
Focal epilepsy can be produced by a blood-brain barrier (BBB)-excluded systemic convulsant (penicillin, folic acid, etc.) in the presence of a focal BBB lesion. Bicuculline methiodide, a GAB blocking epileptogen, crosses the normal BBB of rats poorly and produces no consistent abnormality behaviorally or on EEG at 36 mg/kg. When the BBB is opened in 0.25 ml of cortex by 6,000 rad of .alpha. particles, by a pin trauma lesion or by a heat lesion, the rats are normal clinically and on EEG. When these lesioned rats are challenged with bicuculline methiodide, 36 mg/kg, an intense, highly localized epileptiform discharge results that begins .apprx. 20 min after injection and lasts 30-90 min. The plausibility and experimental utility of the BBB-epileptogen model of epilepsy are enhanced by these observations.