en Nervous system (others) Others Experimental research article Experimental research article <span style="font-size: 12px;"><p align="LEFT"></p></span> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Introduction: </b><font face="Arial,Arial"><font face="Arial,Arial">Recently, herbal medicine is widely used as an alternative and complementary therapy in several neurological disorders such as epilepsy. The anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects of </font></font><i><font face="Arial,Arial"><font face="Arial,Arial">Zingiber officinale </font></font></i><font face="Arial,Arial"><font face="Arial,Arial">or ginger have been well-documented. The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of ginger extract pre-treatment on seizures behavior, neuronal density and astrocytes activation in pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)- induced kindling model. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Methods: </b><font face="Arial,Arial"><font face="Arial,Arial">Kindling model was induced in mice by repetitive administration of PTZ at sub convulsive dose. Hydroalcoholic extract of ginger at doses of 25, 50 or 100 mg/kg were daily injected 10 days before PTZ injections and intraperitoneal administration of extract was continued 1h before each PTZ injection. Immunostaining against NeuN and GFAP as neuronal and astrocyte markers, respectively, was carried out on brain tissue sections. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Results: </b><font face="Arial,Arial"><font face="Arial,Arial">Our data showed that ginger extract pre-treatment, especially at dose of 100 mg/kg, reduced the seizures behavior in PTZ receiving animals. Immunostaining against NeuN biomarker demonstrated that neuronal death was alleviated in animals under treatment of ginger extract. Furthermore, application of ginger extract attenuated the number of GFAP expressing cells in hippocampus of fully-kindled animals. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Conclusion: </b><font face="Arial,Arial"><font face="Arial,Arial">Overall, our data suggest that ginger pre-treatment exerts significant neuroprotective effect by attenuation of astrocytes activation in PTZ-induced kindling model. It can be concluded that ginger might be used as effective supplementary agent in epileptic patients. </font></font></span></font></font></span></font></font></span></font></font></span></span></p> Kindling, Pentylenetetrazol, Zingiber officinale, Neuroprotection, Astrocytes activation 92 102 http://ppj.phypha.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-646-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Reza Naeimi naeimir@mubabol.ac.ir 3200319475328460019396 3200319475328460019396 No Student Research Committee, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran Maryam Ghasemi-Kasman m.ghasemi@mubabol.ac.ir 3200319475328460019397 3200319475328460019397 Yes Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran Sohrab Kazemi s.kazemi@mubabol.ac.ir 3200319475328460019398 3200319475328460019398 No Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran Manouchehr Ashrafpour ashrafpourm@mubabol.ac.ir 3200319475328460019399 3200319475328460019399 No Neuroscience Research Center, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran Ali Akbar Moghadamnia a.moghadamnia@mubabol.ac.ir 3200319475328460019400 3200319475328460019400 No Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran Fereshteh Pourabdolhossein f.pourabdolhossein@mubabol.ac.ir 3200319475328460019401 3200319475328460019401 No Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran