Tobacco smoke is a complex multicomponent system, in which more than 4800 compounds have been identified by chromatographic techniques; many of these compounds are carcinogenic. However, there is a great deal of research into the association between smoking and diseases such as heart attacks, strokes and cancers. Nevertheless rare are the studies on the association between smoking and epilepsy because the exact roles of smoking and nicotine use in epilepsy have not been well examined. In this study the authors evaluate the convulsive effects of intracerebroventricular administration of cigarette smoke condensate in rats and compare intensity of seizures with kainic acid-induced seizures as a model of epilepsy. The role of cholinergic system was also evaluated using mAChRs antagonist in cigarette smoke condensate (CSC) induced seizures. Results indicate that central injection of cigarette condensate provides an epileptic behavior similar to that induced by kainic acid. However a pretreatment with atropine reduced seizures and all their parameters.
Part of the book: Epilepsy