Effects of Pregestational Stress and Concomitant Administration of <scp> <i>Dracocephalum moldavica</i> </scp> Extract on Seizure Behaviours in Next Generation Developing Rats

OBJECTIVE: Little is known about how the effects of pregestational stress on seizure susceptibility in male and female offspring might be attenuated. The current study was undertaken to determine whether Dracocephalum moldavica (DM) administration during gametogenesis could affect stress-precipitated pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-induced seizure in the offspring of rats. METHODS: Male and female Wistar rats were subjected to restraint stress and administered 100 mg/kg of DM extract orally for 50 days (males) or 15 days (females). The rats were then mated to generate eight coupling combinations, comprising four groups without DM extract and four groups with extract: McFc, McFs, MsFc, MsFs, McFc + EX, McFs + EX, MsFc + EX and MsFs + EX (M: male; F: female; C: control; S: stress; EX: extract). Pregnant dams were left undisturbed throughout gestation. Following parturition, each dam and her litter were housed in a separate cage under standard laboratory conditions until weaning. Offspring body weight was recorded at multiple time points. On the postnatal day (PND) 26, two pups per dam, one male and one female, were administered pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) intraperitoneally and evaluated for PTZ-induced seizures. RESULTS: The DM extract significantly enhanced weight gain in offspring across all experimental groups compared with control pups. In addition, DM extract treatment reduced both the frequency and duration of tonic-clonic seizures. Notably, the latency to the first epileptic manifestation was significantly prolonged in the MsFc+EX group compared with its corresponding control. CONCLUSION: The results indicated that DM extract attenuates pregestational stress precipitating epileptic behaviours probably by suppressing oxidative stress.