Abstracts

Rationale: Levetiracetam, a clinically widely used antiepilepsy drug, often does not show anti-convulsant effect in various types of epilepsy models. Various types of anti-epilepsy agent shows neuroprotective effects both in vivo and in vitro. To examine the neuroprotective effect of levetiracetam, I examined its effect on behavioral deficits induced by mild ischemia models in mice.Methods: Levetiracetam was administered to 10-week-old C57/BL6 mice at a dose of 60 mg/mice (200 mg/kg) ip for 5 days, and then the the mice were subjected to permanent bilateral common artery occlusion surgically. Five days after starting the occlusion, mice were subjected to various behavioral tests, such as motor activity tests in the home cage, passive avoidance tests, forced swimming tests and object recognition tests. Results: Ischemic stress did not affect motor activities in the home cage. Administration of Levetiracetam did not show a significant effect on the deterioration of passive avoidance scores or on the prolonged immobilization in forced swimming test in the mice subjected to ischemia. The administration of levetiracetam, however, significantly improved the object recognition scores in the mice subjected to ischemia.Conclusions: Levetiracetam prevents attentional deficits induced by mild ischemic stress.