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We investigated the role of two cytokines, IL-1β and TNF-α, in the development of absence seizures using a genetic model of absence epilepsy in WAG/Rij rats. We administered these cytokines to animals systemically and measured the number of spike-wave discharges (SWDs) in the EEG. We also coadministered IL-1β with the GABA reuptake inhibitor tiagabine and measured the levels of IL-1β and TNF-α in the brain and blood plasma of 2-, 4-, and 6-month-old WAG/Rij rats and animals that served as a non-epileptic control (ACI). We found that IL-1β induced a significant increase in SWDs 2-5 h after administration, while TNF-α enhanced SWDs much later. Both cytokines enhanced passive behavior; body temperature was elevated only after TNF-α. The action of tiagabine was potentiated by earlier IL-1β injection, even when IL-1β was no longer active. Young WAG/Rij rats showed higher levels of TNF-α in blood serum than young ACI rats; the effects in the brain tended to be opposite. The marked differences in timing of the increase in SWDs suggest different time scales for the action of both cytokines tested. It is proposed that the results found after TNF-α are due to the de novo synthesis of IL-1β. TNF-α may possess neuroprotective effects. IL-1β might increase GABAergic neurotransmission. The changes in the efficacy of antiepileptic drugs related to changes in the cytokine systems may have some clinical relevance.

The efficacy of phenobarbital (PB) and phenytoin (PHT) was evaluated against the convulsions in chemically (picrotoxin, PTX) kindled rats. Two protocols were used: assessment of seizures immediately after the completion of the kindling procedure and after the 2-week postkindling PTX-free period, as compared with acute PTX seizures. Kindled convulsions were more sensitive than acute PTX seizures to the antiepileptic action of PB and PHT. On the other hand, the "postkindling state" was characterized by the enhancement of the severity of the convulsions in comparison with both kindled and acute PTX seizures and dramatic increase in the resistance to the action of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). It is concluded that the two paradigms--kindling proper and "postkindling"--could be applied as models for AED-sensitive and AED-resistant animal epilepsy models correspondingly.

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Distance learning (DL) is a completely new and unique form of education, which got forced to switch to by the current pandemic of coronavirus disease. Note that until now, distance learning technologies have been used at the department of general and clinical pathological physiology and some other departments of the Odessa National Medical University (ONMedU). The aim of this analytical article is to analyze the efficacy of ONMedU General and Clinical Pathological Physiology Department staff during the one and a half year period of the coronavirus infection pandemic with an accent to psychological approach to students modified teaching. The urgent need of time and the primary desire to protect students and their own lives during 2020-2021 requires us to improve our own pedagogical approaches in the further on-line teaching of students. We see success in systematic methodological work with students, the implementation of which will make it possible to evoke and increase their motivation to study histology. The importance of this methodological technique, supported in the senior years of medical universities by the integration of teaching theoretical and clinical disciplines, the approximation of teaching to specific clinical cases will help optimize the assimilation of morphological knowledge by students at least and, undoubtedly, in the near future will lead to a better assimilation of clinical disciplines. In connection with the ideas of individualized and developmental learning, the use of psychological capabilities of learning tools in the virtual environment brings both pedagogy and psychology to a new level of understanding the mediation of mental, creative, communicative and executive learning and learning activities. The use of distance learning helps the students to acquire skills of independent work, creates comfortable conditions for creativity, increases the creative and intellectual potential of the student through self-organization, the ability to interact with computer technology and make responsible decisions, creates favorable conditions for individual creative expression in the process of learning, for the development of the student's personality. The authors are convinced that the optimization and improvement of the educational process in medical universities is to draw students' attention to the problems that the medical community is dealing with on a daily basis today.