Anticonvulsant and ameliorative effects of pioglitazone on cognitive deficits, inflammation and apoptosis in the hippocampus of rat pups exposed to febrile seizure

Objective(s): Pioglitazone (PGZ), a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ) agonist, has significant neuroprotective effects and has been reported to regulate inflammatory processes.Materials and Methods: We evaluated the effects of PGZ on febrile seizure (FS) in rat pups. Three groups of male rat pups received intraperitoneal (IP) injections of PGZ (5, 10, and 20 mg/kg). Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and kainic acid (KA) were injected to induce FS. The rat pups behaviors were recorded and analyzed. Seizure latency, duration, and severity were recorded to evaluate the effect of PGZ on FS. Novel object recognition task (NORT) was used to evaluate the effect of PGZ on cognitive deficits induced by FS. At the end of the experimental protocol, molecular and histological tests were done.Results: PGZ significantly increased seizure latency and decreased seizure duration and median of seizure scores (P