Silibinin, an active constituent of silymarin extracted from milk thistle, has been previously reported to confer protection to the adult brain against neurodegeneration. However, its effects against epileptic seizures have not been examined yet. In order to investigate the effects of silibinin against epileptic seizures, we used a relevant mouse model in which seizures are manifested as status epilepticus, induced by kainic acid (KA) treatment. Silibinin was injected intraperitoneally, starting 1 day before an intrahippocampal KA injection and continued daily until analysis of each experiment. Our results indicated that silibinin-treatment could reduce seizure susceptibility and frequency of spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRS) induced by KA administration, and attenuate granule cell dispersion (GCD), a morphological alteration characteristic of the dentate gyrus (DG) in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Moreover, its treatment significantly reduced the aberrant levels of apoptotic, autophagic and pro-inflammatory molecules induced by KA administration, resulting in neuroprotection in the hippocampus. Thus, these results suggest that silibinin may be a beneficial natural compound for preventing epileptic events.

中文翻译：

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水飞蓟宾对海藻酸诱导的海马体内神经毒性的有益作用。

水飞蓟宾是从水飞蓟中提取的水飞蓟素的活性成分，以前已有报道可赋予成年大脑保护作用，使其免受神经变性的影响。但是，其对癫痫发作的作用尚未进行检查。为了研究水飞蓟宾对癫痫发作的影响，我们使用了一种相关的小鼠模型，其中癫痫病表现为由海藻酸（KA）治疗诱发的癫痫发作状态。从海马内KA注射前1天开始腹膜内注射水飞蓟宾，每天持续进行，直到对每个实验进行分析。我们的研究结果表明，水飞蓟宾治疗可降低癫痫发作的敏感性和因KA给药引起的自发性复发性癫痫发作（SRS）的频率，并减弱颗粒细胞弥散性（GCD），颞叶癫痫（TLE）中齿状回（DG）的形态学改变特征。此外，它的治疗显着降低了由KA给药诱导的凋亡，自噬和促炎分子的异常水平，从而导致了海马的神经保护。因此，这些结果表明水飞蓟宾可能是预防癫痫事件的有益天然化合物。