Since the last decade deep brain stimulation has been proposed as an alternative treatment for patients who do not become seizure-free with the current pharmacological treatments and cannot undergo resective surgical procedure. However, the optimal stimulation parameters remain undetermined and active research in humans and animals is necessary. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of unilateral Low Frequency Stimulation (LFS) of hippocampus on seizure development by using the hippocampal rapid kindling method (hRK) in rats. We used male Wistar rats implanted with electrodes in the ventral hippocampus. All rats underwent hRK (biphasic square wave pulses, 20 Hz for 10 seconds) during three consecutive days (twelve stimulations per day). The control group (hRK; n = 6) received only RK stimulus, while the treated group (LFS-hRK; n = 8) received also LFS (biphasic square wave pulses, 1 Hz for 30 seconds) immediately before the RK stimulus, during three consecutive days. At the end of behavioral testing on day 3, 62% (P < 0.05) of the animals receiving LFS treatment were still not fully kindled staying in stages 0-III (P < 0.01). The number of stimulations needed to achieve generalized seizures (stage IV-V of Racine scale) was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in the LFS group with respect to control group. No significant differences in the cumulative daily afterdischarge duration were observed between both groups. These findings suggest that preemptive LFS can significantly decrease the incidence of hippocampus-kindled seizures and delay the progression and secondary generalization of focal seizures

Epilepsy is one of the most common serious neurological disorders. Pharmacoresistant epilepsy patients are poorly controlled or their seizures are refractory to drug treatment. Resective surgery is frequently a promising therapy in this population, however, not all the patients meet the eligibility criteria for the surgical treatment. Deep brain stimulation has been investigated in clinical studies and animal studies as an alternative treatment, but the optimal stimulation parameters remain an issue. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of unilateral high-frequency stimulation (HFS) of hippocampus on seizure development by using the hippocampal rapid kindling method (hRK) in rats, and compared the results with those of low-frequency stimulation previously published by our group. We used male Wistar rats implanted with electrodes in the ventral hippocampus. All rats underwent hRK (biphasic square wave pulses, 20 Hz for 10 seconds) during three consecutive days (twelve stimulations per day). The control group (hRK; n = 7) received only RK stimulus, while the treated group (HFS-hRK; n = 9) received also HFS (biphasic square wave pulses, 130 Hz for 30 seconds) immediately before the RK stimulus, during three consecutive days. At the end of behavioral testing 78% (p < 0.01) of the animals receiving HFS treatment were still not fully kindled staying in stages 0 -III (p < 0.01). HFS group needed a higher number of stimulations to achieve stage III (p < 0.05) with respect to control group. However, no significant differences in the cumulative daily afterdischarge duration were observed. HFS did not present significant differences compared with LFS in any of studied parameters. The findings suggest that unilateral HFS applied on hippocampus effectively inhibited the epileptogenic process induced by hippocampal rapid kindling. According to the comparative results about hippocam...