[Developing a new animal model of temporal lobe epilepsy].
Epilepsy affects 1-2 % of the population. For 30 % of these patients, their syndrome will be refractory to medical treatment. To improve our understanding and treatment of the epilepsies, we need to develop clinically relevant animal models. As temporal lobe epilepsy is often preceded by prolonged febrile seizures and in our population associated with a focal cortical dysplasia, we hypothesised that an underlying predisposing anatomical lesion would predispose individuals to develop prolonged febrile seizures and that temporal lobe epilepsy would later develop. As predicted, all the lesioned animals developed prolonged febrile seizures, while all other control groups only showed simple febrile seizures. After a latent period, 86 % of the animals who had experienced a prolonged seizure developed spontaneously recurrent limbic seizures. We now need to understand the anatomical and electrophysiological changes underlying this new epilepsy model to try and develop more effective treatments for the condition.
Carmant
Lionel
L
D.Clinique d'Epilepsie et Centre de Recherche sur lEpilepsie, Service de Neurologie, CHU Sainte-Justine, Université de Montréal, 3175, Côte Sainte-Catherine, Bureau A-714, Montréal, Québec, H3T 1C5 Canada. lionel.carmant@umontreal.ca
D000818:Animals; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence