Objects:
@EN Although the electroconvulsive therapy has been widely used for the treatment for major psychiatric illnesses, its mechanism of action is not clearly understood, yet. And the researches concerning the mechanism of action of electroconvulsive
shock(ECS) have been focussed mostly about the neurotransmitter and receptor.
In recent years, however, an alternative approach using c-fos protein(Fos) is newly accepted among several researchers in an attempt to understand the mechanism of action of ECS. The fact that c-fos, a kind of immediate early gene, is expressed
by
various physiological and pharmacologic stimuli in central nervous system shed light on the possibility of using it as a marker for neuronal activity.
This study was designed to investigate the possible anatomical locations related to the action of ECS by observing the expression of c-fos with immunocytochemistry.
@ES Methods:
@EN The author investigated the affected areas and time-course of ECS in rat brain using Fos immunohistochemistry. The 84 Sprague0Dawley strain rats were divided into two groups, as experimental and control ones. The emergences of c-fos were
measured
rightly, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, and 24 hours after ECS treatments.
@ES Results:
@EN From the experiment, the following results were obtained.
1) Fos expression increased significantly in the dentate gyrus, hippocampus, pyriform cortex, ventromedial hypothalamus and amygdala of experinmental group than the control group.
2) Fos expression reached maximum 1 hour after the ECS treatment and returned to the background level in 8 hours in the experimental group.
@ES Conclusion:
@EN These results imply that the mechanism of action of ECS might be mediated through the various areas of the brain, largely at the limbic system and cerebral cortex. And it is notable that the substantial increase of Fos was observed in the
limbic
system, which is known to be closely related to affective illnesses.
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