Identification of differentially expressed genes in the hippocampus in the intraamygdala kainic acid mouse model of status epilepticus.

The aim of this work was to identify mRNA expression changes in the ipsilateral hippocampus in the intraamygdala kainic acid (KA) mouse model of status epilepticus. In this model, status epilepticus (prolonged damaging seizures) are triggered by an intraamygdala KA injection. All mice develop epilepsy after a short latency period of 3-5 days. For our experiments, 10-week old mice with a C57BL/6 background were either injected with intraamygdala KA (n = 18) or vehicle (PBS, n = 18). Mice were sacrificed 8 hours following status epilepticus (acute pathology) or 14 days post-status epilepticus (timepoint at which all mice suffer from chronic epilepsy) and ipsilateral hippocampi were quickly dissected and pooled into 3 groups (n = 3 per pooled sample). Total mRNA from ipsilateral hippocampi was extracted, purified and amplified. cDNA was hybridized using the Mouse MG-430 PM Array Strip and CEL files were generated from DAT files using Affymetrix Command Console software. Finally, differential gene expression was calculated.