The spontaneously epileptic rat (SER), a zittertremor double mutant rat: histopathological findings in the central nervous system

The spontaneously epileptic rat (SER), a mutant homozygous for both zitter and tremor genes, exhibits absence-like seizures and tonic convulsions without external stimulation from 7 to 8 weeks of age. Histopathological studies of the central nervous system revealed the following abnormalities. The 35-day-old SERs which exhibit body tremor, and which have never shown seizures, had marked vacuolation and hypomyelination in the brainstem and cerebellum. The vacuoles were produced by splitting of the myelin sheaths and swelling of the dendrites and were related to primary swelling of the astrocytes. The 2- to 3-month-old SERs with staggering gait and seizures showed focal axonal swelling (‘torpedo’) and advanced vacuolation in the granular cell layer of the cerebellum in addition to the abnormalities observed at 35 days of age. Degenerative neurons and spheroidal bodies were observed in the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental nucleus. These brain areas are known to be related to tonic convulsions in the several experimental models. The SER is believed to be a useful tool for the investigation of the relationship between the structure and function of the central nervous system in epilepsy. It is probable that the more severe changes in the cerebellum are responsible for the staggering gait.