GINSENG TOTAL SAPONIN REDUCES EPILEPTIFORM ACTIVITY IN RAT HIPPOCAMPAL SLICES

초록

RATIONALE: Ginseng has been used as a folk medicine in far eastern countries for thousands of years. One of its pharmacological effects on the central nervous system is to modify the neurotransmitter-receptor systems. Recently, it was demonstrated that saponin elicited the inhibitory effect on electrically evoked response of CA1 region of rat hippocampal slices, suggesting that it could attenuate hyperexcitation of the neural systems (Lee et al., Biol Pharm Bull. 2000;23:411). Therefore, we tested the potential inhibitory effect of saponin on epileptiform activity induced in rat hippocampal slices. The goal of this study is to further discuss the future direction for saponin research in epilepsy. METHODS: Epileptiform activities were recorded in CA1 region of hippocampal slices from Sprague-Dawley rats using extracellular field potential recording with grass micropipette. To induce epileptiform activity hippocampal slices were perfused with Mg2+-free oxygenated artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) at 30°C.