Medline ® Abstract for Reference 126

The risk of epilepsy is higher in the offspring of epileptic mothers than epileptic fathers. It has been hypothesized that seizures during pregnancy may alter subsequent seizure susceptibility in the offspring. To test this hypothesis, pregnant rats were fully kindled during the first, second, or third trimesters. In addition, another group of pregnant rats were kindled during the first trimester and then stimulated daily to induce generalized tonic-clonic seizures until delivery. The rate of kindling in the offspring of the four groups was then compared with sham-operated controls. No significant difference in rate of kindling was noted between the offspring of sham-operated controls and kindled mothers. This study fails to support the hypothesis that maternal seizures during pregnancy lead to increased seizure susceptibility in the offspring.