Nestin down-regulation of cortical radial glia is delayed in rats submitted to recurrent status epilepticus during early postnatal life.

OBJECTIVE Nestin is temporarily expressed in several tissues during development and it is replaced by other protein types during cell differentiation process. This unique property allows distinguishing between undifferentiated and differentiated cells. This study was delineated to analyze the temporal pattern of nestin expression in cortical radial glial cells of rats during normal development and of rats submitted to recurrent status epilepticus (SE) in early postnatal life (P). METHOD Experimental rats were submitted to pilocarpine-induced SE on P7-9. The cortical temporal profile of nestin was studied by immunohistochemistry at multiple time points (P9, P10, P12, P16, P30 and P90). RESULTS We observed delayed nestin down-regulation in experimental rats of P9, P10, P12 and P16 groups. In addition, few radial glial cells were still present only in P21 experimental rats. CONCLUSION Our results suggested that SE during early postnatal life alters normal maturation during a critical period of brain development.