The relationship between sleep and epilepsy: evidence from clinical trials and animal models.

Interactions between sleep and epilepsy have been widely documented. Sleep can modulate epileptic phenomena, and epilepsy and seizures disorganize the macro- and micro-architecture of sleep. In turn, sleep deprivation exerts a strong influence on the occurrence of seizures and interictal epileptiform discharges.

Pre and post-natal exposure to ambient level of air pollution impairs memory of rats: the role of oxidative stress.

The aims of this study were to evaluate whether air pollution during pre-natal and post-natal phases change habituation and short-term discriminative memories and if oxidants are involved in this process. As secondary objectives, it was to evaluate if the change of filtered to nonfiltered environment could protect the cortex of rats against oxidative stress as well as to modify the behavior of these animals. Wistar, male rats were divided into four groups (n = 12/group): pre and post-natal exposure until adulthood to filtered air (FA); pre-natal period to nonfiltered air (NFA-FA); until (21st post-natal day) and post-natal to filtered air until adulthood (PND21); pre-natal to filtered air until PND21 and post-natal to nonfiltered air until adulthood (FA-NFA); pre and post-natal to nonfiltered air (NFA).

A randomized clinical trial of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in patients with refractory epilepsy.

Objective: To study the antiepileptic effects of rTMS in patients with refractory epilepsy and malformations of cortical development in a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial.

Methods: Twenty-one patients with malformations of cortical development and refractory epilepsy underwent five consecutive sessions of low-frequency rTMS, either sham or active (1Hz, 1,200 pulses), focally targeting the malformations of cortical development. The number of epileptiform discharges in the electroencephalogram and the number of clinical seizures were measured before (baseline), immediately after, as well as 30 and 60 days after rTMS treatment.

Efferent projections of reuniens and rhomboid nuclei of the thalamus in the rat.

The nucleus reuniens (RE) is the largest of the midline nuclei of the thalamus and exerts strong excitatory actions on the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex. Although RE projections to the hippocampus have been well documented, no study using modern tracers has examined the totality of RE projections. With the anterograde anatomical tracer Phaseolus vulgaris leuccoagglutinin, we examined the efferent projections of RE as well as those of the rhomboid nucleus (RH) located dorsal to RE.

[Experimental tumors of the central nervous system: standardisation of a model in rats using the 9L glioma cells].

A number of experimental models have been established during the last decades in order to study tumor biology and the effects of treatment or manipulation of the microenvironment of malignant glial tumors. Even though those models have been well characterised and are, to a certain extent, easily reproducible, there are limitations as to their use and to the interpretation of the results. The aim of this study is to standardize a model of a malignant glial tumor and detect possible events able to modify its development.