Objective      To determine the cerebral protective effect of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) in rat early epilepsy.       Methods      Twenty-four SD rats were randomly and equally divided into 3

groups

normal control

model group and intervention group. The rats of intervention groups received an intraperitoneal injection of 0.1 μg/ml 1

25-dihydroxyvitamin D

3

(1

25-(OH)

2

D

3

) for 7 d

and the animals of the normal control and model group were administered with an intracortical injection of normal saline. Rat models of epilepsy were established by intracortical microinjection of ferric chloride and identified by electroencephalography (EEG) in 2 h later and occurrence of seizures by behavior observation in 6 h later. Expression of G6PD mRNA and protein were detected in the cerebral cortex by RT-PCR and Western blotting. Malondialdehyde (MDA) level of lipid peroxidation and antioxidant level of glutathione (GSH) and G6PD activity were detected by colorimetric method.       Results      Typical seizures were observed in model and intervention groups. The seriousness and duration of epilepsy seizures of rats from intervention group were less obvious than those of model groups (

P

<

0.05). The expressions of G6PD mRNA and protein in injection zone of cortex from intervention groups were higher than those in the model groups (

P

<

0.05)

but lower than those in the control groups (

P

>0.05). The G6PD activity and GSH level were increased (P

<

0.05) but the MDA level was significantly reduced in the intervention groups (

P

<

0.05).       Conclusion      G6PD can improve the antioxidant capacity of brain cortex and protect rats from the FeCl

3

-induced epilepsy.