Study design and number of rats used in the different experiments.

MDP control rats were sacrificed 3 or 6–9 months after diazepam-pilocarpine administration (respectively MDP-3m and MDP-6m). Randomly chosen epileptic MP rats were sacrificed respectively 3–5 days (early chronic), 3 months and 6 months after epilepsy onset. Seven chronic epileptic MP rats were found dead (three rats, ∼1 month post-SE; two rats, ∼4 months post-SE and two rats, ∼6 months post-SE). MDP, MAM/diazepam/pilocarpine treated rats; MP, MAM/pilocarpine treated rats; WB, western blot; SE, status epilepticus. No SE: rats not experiencing SE.