Neuropathologic and clinical features of human medial temporal lobe epilepsy.
OBJECTIVE
There is recent evidence of various types of morphological changes in the hippocampus of a rodent model of medial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE). However, little is known about such changes in humans. We examined the histological changes [i.e., neuronal loss, cell genesis, and granule cell dispersion (GCD)] in surgical hippocampal specimens taken from patients with mTLE.


METHODS
Nissl staining, and nestin and Prox1 immunohistochemistry were performed on human hippocampal specimens obtained from patients with medically intractable mTLE, thus allowing the analysis of neuronal loss, cell genesis, and GCD, respectively. We also assessed the correlations between clinical parameters and the histopathologic findings.


RESULTS
The degree of cell genesis in the granule cell layer was significantly correlated with the severity of GCD, history of childhood febrile seizures, and frequent generalized seizures. Cell genesis was not correlated with cell death, age at seizure onset, duration of epilepsy, or the mean frequency of all seizures.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that cell genesis in the dentate gyrus of patients with mTLE is associated with GCD and is influenced by the presence of febrile seizures during childhood and the frequency of episodes of generalized seizures.
Bae
Eun-Kee
EK
Stroke & Stem Cell Laboratory in Clinical Research Institute, Stem Cell Research Center, Department of Neurology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
Jung
Keun-Hwa
KH
Chu
Kon
K
Lee
Soon-Tae
ST
Kim
Jin-Hee
JH
Park
Kyung-Il
KI
Kim
Manho
M
Chung
Chun-Ki
CK
Lee
Sang Kun
SK
Roh
Jae-Kyu
JK