Antti Markku Airaksinen1, Shahryar Khan
Hekmatyar2, Neil Jerome2, Juha-Pekka Niskanen1,3,
Asla Pitkanen4,5, Risto A. Kauppinen2, Olli Grohn1
1Department of Neurobiology,
A.I.Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Kuopio, Kuopio,
Finland; 2Dartmouth Medical School, Biomedical NMR Research
Center, Hanover, NH, United States; 3Department of Physics, University
of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland; 4Department of Neurobiology, Epilepsy
Research Laboratory, A.I.Virtanen Institute, University of Kuopio, Kuopio,
Finland; 5Department of Neurology, Kuopio University Hospital,
Kuopio, Finland
Simultaneous
LFP and fMRI measurements were performed during kainic acid (KA) induced
seizures in awake and medetomidine anesthetized rats. The recurrent epileptic
seizures were detected in the LFP signal after KA injection and robust BOLD
responses were observed in the hippocampus both in awake and sedated
animals. To determine basal CBF, ASL
was performed showing the highest CBF values in isoflurane anesthetized rats
and the lowest CBF under medetomidine sedation. We conclude that medetomidine
sedation is suitable for studies of normal and abnormal brain activity, but
lowered basal CBF level should be taken into account when interpreting the
fMRI results.