Eclampsia is a poorly understood but potentially fatal complication of pregnancy.Herein we introduce an eclampsia-like seizure model using pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) in preeclamptic rats.Rats were administered lipopolysaccharide (1.0 μtg/kg) on gestational day 14 to establish preeclampsia (PE).PE and control rats (non-pregnant, NP; normal-pregnant, P) were injected with PTZ (35 or 40 mg/kg, IP) on gestational days 16-18 to induce seizures.In separate experiments, MgSO4 (270 mg/kg IP) was injected in advance of PTZ into PE rats to observe its effect on PTZ-induced seizures.Multiple organ dysfunction and severity of seizures were evaluated.Preeclampsia in PE rats after LPS administration was verified by significantly higher blood pressure, urinary albumin, and serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) compared with these parameters in the control groups.Furthermore, serum TNF-α, IL-β, and sFlt-1 were significantly higher in the PE group, while PlGF and NO were significantly lower compared with the P group.After PTZ injection, five inflammatory cytokines were highest in the PE group treated with 40 mg/kg PTZ, and compared with other treatment groups the seizure latency period was shorter (P < 0.01) and the duration of seizures prolonged (P > 0.05).MgSO4 increased seizure latency and reduced seizure duration, but only partially improved pregnancy outcomes.This PTZ-induced eclampsia-like rat model successfully mimicked the functional disorders of human eclampsia.Notably, increased inflammatory cytokines in preeclampsia were coincident with a decreased threshold for PTZ-induced seizures, suggesting that inflammation has an important role in eclampsia.