Assessment of Ketogenic Diet, Intermitant Fasting and High Fat Diet Effect on BDNF and Behaviour in Epilepsy Mice Models

Aim: This study, it was aimed to evaluate the effects of ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting and high-fat diet, which were designed as a pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) kindling model of epilepsy, on epilepsy by measuring the serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels and analyzing the behavioral changes. Materials and Methods: 28 8-week-old BALB/c mice were used in the study to create a pentylenetetrazol kindling model, the mice were injected with a total of 15 doses of pentylenetetrazole along with diet; they were divided into four groups: fed with standard rodent food, with high-fat feed, intermittent fasting and ketogenic diet. The three-month experimental period, open field and forced swim behavioral tests were applied to all groups.BDNF levels were measured from serum. Results: A significant difference (p < 0.05) was found in the open field and forced swimming test in the ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting and high-fat diet groups. It was determined that the number of epileptic seizures decreased in the intermittent fasting group compared to the control group, but increased in the high-fat diet group. No significant difference was observed between the groups in the level of BDNF. Conclusion: In our study, the effect of the diets applied in the PTZ-induced epilepsy model showed differences in the number of seizures. The number of seizures decreased in the intermittent fasting group compared to the high-fat diet group. There was no difference in serum BDNF levels in the periphery, the difference in behavioral tests suggested that the applied diets had effects on behavior-related pathways.