Down-Regulation of Mir-145 Improves Learning and Memory Abilities in Epileptic Rats by Regulating Hippocampal Neuron Apoptosis

OBJECTIVES: To investigate effect of miR-145 on learning and memory ability in rats with epilepsy. METHODS: Rats with epilepsy were induced by lithium chloride-pilocarpine. miR-145 antagomir and antagomir-control were injected into epileptic brains by the stereotactic technique, respectively. Then, rats were divided into a normal group (N), epilepsy group (Ep), miR-145 antagomir group (A) and antagomir-control group (C). After 1 and 7 days of treatment, the expression of miR-145 and Caspase-9 were detected, and the apoptosis of hippocampal neurons in CA1 of hippocampus was detected. After 7 days of treatment, the learning and memory abilities of rats was measured by using the Morris water maze test. RESULTS: The rat epilepsy model was successfully constructed. Compared with the N group, the target quadrant time and platform crossing times were reduced and the expression of miR-145 and Caspase-9 was increased in the epilepsy groups (P < 0.05). Compared with the Ep and C groups, the target quadrant time and platform crossing times were increased and the expression of miR-145 and Caspase-9 was down-regulated in the A group (P < 0.05). The number of apoptotic hippocampal neurons in the hippocampal CAl area of the Ep group was more than that in the N group and in the A group was less than that in the C group at 1 and 7 days after modeling respectively (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Down-regulated miR-145 improved the apoptosis of hippocampal neurons by reducing the Caspase-9 expression in hippocampus and further affected learning and memory abilities of rats with epilepsy.