A growing body of evidence demonstrates that dietary
therapies, mainly the
ketogenic diet, may be highly effective in the reduction of epileptic
seizures. All of them share the common characteristic of restricting
carbohydrate intake to shift the predominant caloric source of the diet to fat. Catabolism of
fats results in the production of
ketone bodies which become alternate energy substrates to
glucose. Although many mechanisms by which
ketone bodies yield its
anticonvulsant effect are proposed, the relationships between the brain metabolism of the
ketone bodies and their neuroprotective and antiepileptogenic action still remain to be discerned. In the study, X-ray fluorescence microscopy and FTIR microspectroscopy were used to follow
ketogenic diet-induced changes in the elemental and biochemical compositions of rat hippocampal formation tissue. The use of
synchrotron sources of X-rays and infrared allowed us to examine changes in the accumulation and distribution of selected elements (P, S, K, Ca, Fe, Cu, Zn, and Se) and biomolecules (
proteins,
lipids,
ketone bodies, etc.) with the micrometer spatial resolution. The comparison of rats fed with the
ketogenic diet and rats fed with the standard laboratory diet showed changes in the hippocampal accumulation of P, K, Ca, and Zn. The relations obtained for Ca (increased level in CA3, DG, and its internal area) and Zn (decreased areal density in CA3 and DG) were analogous to those that we previously observed for rats in the acute phase of
pilocarpine-induced
seizures. Biochemical analysis of tissues taken from
ketogenic diet-fed rats demonstrated increased intensity of absorption band occurring at 1740 cm(-1), which was probably the result of elevated accumulation of
ketone bodies. Moreover, higher absolute and relative (3012 cm(-1)/2924 cm(-1), 3012 cm(-1)/
lipid massif, and 3012 cm(-1)/
amide I) intensity of the 3012-cm(-1) band resulting from increased
unsaturated fatty acids content was found after the treatment with the high-fat diet. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "
Status Epilepticus".