ABSTRACT
Animal models of epilepsy have been very useful in the preclinical evaluation and development of new antiepileptic drugs and a variety of them exist at the whole animal, organ, tissue, and cellular levels. Slice preparations have been made from many species and from rats of different ages as well. Orientation of the slice relative to the cutting edge of the knife will depend somewhat on which areas of the hippocampus are of special interest. A small-diameter camel hair brush can be used to remove the cut slices from the knife blade of the tissue chopper or to gently tease them from the surface of the hippocampal block as it rests on the chopper platform. The neuronal circuitry inherent in the slice makes it suitable for the study of several parameters associated with levels of excitability and inhibition, under both control and hyperexcitable conditions.
