Mechanisms of epileptic brain damage: evidence for a protective role of the noradrenergic locus coeruleus system in the rat.

This study explores the possibility that the noradrenergic locus coeruleus system influences epileptic brain damage. Bilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the locus coeruleus projection to the forebrain were found to aggravate neuronal necrosis in the neocortex following 60 min of flurothyl-induced status epilepticus. We propose that the activation of the inhibitory locus coeruleus system during status epilepticus counteracts a deleterious neuronal hyperexcitation, probably induced by excessive release of excitatory amino acids, thereby limiting neuronal necrosis.