Effects of ganoderma lucidum spores on changes of both caspase‐8 and nestin in epilepsy rats

To investigate the effects of ganoderma lucidum spores on caspase‐8 and nestin in brain tissue of rats by pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) induced epilepsy, and to further study the pathogenesis of epilepsy and the anti‐epilepsy mechanism of ganoderma lucidum spores. Thirty‐six male Sprague‐Dawley rats were divided into three groups randomly: control, PTZ epilepsy and ganoderma lucidum spores (GLS) groups. The results showed that caspase‐8‐positive cell's number in rats of PTZ model group were higher than that of normal control and GLS group, while the number of caspase‐8‐positive cells were decreased in the GLS group compared with that of the epileptic model group. The content of nestin were higher in PTZ model group than those of control group and GLS group in cortex and hippocampus, the level expression of nestin in GLS group were higher than control group. Conclusion Ganoderma lucidum spores can effectively reduce the expression of apoptosis cell and inhibit the caspase‐8 activations in the epileptic rat ′ s brain tissue, strengthen the function of anti‐oxidize in brain tissue, and GLS can supply recovering of epilepsy nerve cell with important basis by reducing the content of nestin neural internality protect mechanism can be strengthened to reduce the damage on nerve system induced by falling sickness. Ganoderma lucidum spores is an assistant medicine to cure epilepsy, it could be very useful in clinical application.