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Query: UMLS:C0036572 (seizures)
 80,221 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We have previously shown that in the adult rat the inhibition of brain glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) activity by pyridoxal phosphate-gamma-glutamyl hydrazone (PLPGH) administration does not result in convulsions, whereas in the adult mouse intense convulsions invariably occur. In the present study we report that, surprisingly, immature rats from 2 to 20 days of age treated with PLPGH (80 mg/kg) showed generalized tonic-clonic convulsions, whereas no convulsions at all were present in 30 days-old or older rats. GAD activity, measured by enzymic determination of GABA formed in forebrain homogenates, was inhibited by about 60% at the time of convulsions in 15 days-old and younger rats, whereas the inhibition was between 40 and 50% in older animals. The addition of the coenzyme pyridoxal 5'-phosphate to the incubation medium completely reversed this inhibition. In all treated animals GABA levels were lower compared to controls. The results indicate that the susceptibility of GAD in vivo to a diminished cofactor concentration decreases with age. It seems possible that changes in the expression of enzyme forms are reflected in developmental variations in the susceptibility to seizures induced by vitamin B6 depletion, but alterations of other B6-dependent biochemical pathways cannot be discarded.
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PMID:Convulsions and inhibition of glutamate decarboxylase by pyridoxal phosphate-gamma-glutamyl hydrazone in the developing rat. 818 28

The convulsant action of 3-mercaptopropionic acid (3-MPA), a known inhibitor of glutamate decarboxylase activity, was studied in 7-, 12-, 18- and 25-day-old rats and in adult animals. 3-MPA elicited predominantly clonic, minimal seizures as well as generalized tonic-clonic (major) seizures at all developmental stages studied. The CD50 for major seizures did not change during development; CD50 for minimal seizures was significantly lower in 18-day-old rats than in older animals. Latency to the onset of seizures was shortest in 18-day-old rats and extremely long in 12- and, especially, in 7-day-old rats. This long latency might signify either changing molecular properties of glutamate decarboxylase during development or slow turnover of GABA at early postnatal stages. Electrocorticographic recordings demonstrated sharp EEG components in the frontal region as a first sign of 3-MPA action, and seizure patterns exhibited similar developmental changes as found with other seizure models (a decrease in duration of individual graphoelements and an increase in synchronization among various cortical regions). This indicates the primary importance of brain maturation in the expression of epileptic EEG phenomena. The correlation between EEG and motor phenomena was poor in the youngest animals and it ameliorated with age, but it never became perfectly coincidental.
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PMID:Motor and electrocorticographic epileptic activity induced by 3-mercaptopropionic acid in immature rats. 824 36

In order to identify lasting alterations in gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurons in the kindling model of epilepsy, immunocytochemical techniques were used to quantify the number of GABA-immunoreactive (IR) neurons in different regions of the hippocampal formation (HCF) of amygdala-kindled rats, 40 days after the last fully kindled seizure. A new, highly specific monoclonal GABA antibody was used for these experiments. Unexpectedly, the antibody not only stained neurons in CA1, CA3, and hilus, but also intensively stained granule cells (GCs) in the dentate gyrus (DG) of both kindled rats and non-kindled controls, indicating that GCs may be capable of synthesizing GABA. Comparison with a polyclonal GABA and a glutamate decarboxylase antibody showed that staining of GCs with the monoclonal GABA antibody was much more intense. The number of GABA-IR cells that were counted in different regions of the HCF, including the DG, did not differ significantly between kindled rats and controls, which does not support the hypothesis of loss of hippocampal GABAergic neurons to explain the permanency of kindled epileptogenesis.
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PMID:Immunocytochemical localization of GABA immunoreactivity in dentate granule cells of normal and kindled rats. 882 58

The excitatory, glutamatergic granule cells of the hippocampal dentate gyrus are presumed to play central roles in normal learning and memory, and in the genesis of spontaneous seizure discharges that originate within the temporal lobe. In localizing the two GABA-producing forms of glutamate decarboxylase (GAD65 and GAD67) in the normal hippocampus as a prelude to experimental epilepsy studies, we unexpectedly discovered that, in addition to its presence in hippocampal nonprincipal cells, GAD67-like immunoreactivity (LI) was present in the excitatory axons (the mossy fibers) of normal dentate granule cells of rats, mice, and the monkey Macaca nemestrina. Using improved immunocytochemical methods, we were also able to detect GABA-LI in normal granule cell somata and processes. Conversely, GAD65-LI was undetectable in normal granule cells. Perforant pathway stimulation for 24 hours, which evoked population spikes and epileptiform discharges in both dentate granule cells and hippocampal pyramidal neurons, induced GAD65-, GAD67-, and GABA-LI only in granule cells. Despite prolonged excitation, normally GAD- and GABA-negative dentate hilar neurons and hippocampal pyramidal cells remained immunonegative. Induced granule cell GAD65-, GAD67-, and GABA-LI remained elevated above control immunoreactivity for at least 4 days after the end of stimulation. Pre-embedding immunocytochemical electron microscopy confirmed that GAD67- and GABA-LI were induced selectively within granule cells; granule cell layer glia and endothelial cells were GAD- and GABA-immunonegative. In situ hybridization after stimulation revealed a similarly selective induction of GAD65 and GAD67 mRNA in dentate granule cells. Neurochemical analysis of the microdissected dentate gyrus and area CA1 determined whether changes in GAD- and GABA-LI reflect changes in the concentrations of chemically identified GAD and GABA. Stimulation for 24 hours increased GAD67 and GABA concentrations sixfold in the dentate gyrus, and decreased the concentrations of the GABA precursors glutamate and glutamine. No significant change in GAD65 concentration was detected in the microdissected dentate gyrus despite the induction of GAD65-LI. The concentrations of GAD65, GAD67, GABA, glutamate and glutamine in area CA1 were not significantly different from control concentrations. These results indicate that dentate granule cells normally contain two "fast-acting" amino acid neurotransmitters, one excitatory and one inhibitory, and may therefore produce both excitatory and inhibitory effects. Although the physiological role of granule cell GABA is unknown, the discovery of both basal and activity-dependent GAD and GABA expression in glutamatergic dentate granule cells may have fundamental implications for physiological plasticity presumed to underlie normal learning and memory. Furthermore, the induction of granule cell GAD and GABA by afferent excitation may constitute a mechanism by which epileptic seizures trigger compensatory interictal network inhibition or GABA-mediated neurotrophic effects.
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PMID:Basal expression and induction of glutamate decarboxylase and GABA in excitatory granule cells of the rat and monkey hippocampal dentate gyrus. 888 46

Circumscribed cortical lesions are frequently encountered in patients with chronic focal epilepsies. However, the pathogenesis of seizures is poorly understood. To determine whether the perilesional cortex shows evidence for abnormal excitatory or inhibitory neurochemical activity, we immunohistochemically examined the distribution of the alpha 1 subunit of the GABAA receptor (GABAR), the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit 1 (NR1), and glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) in 30 surgical specimens of neocortical epilepsy-associated lesions. These comprised 7 low-grade gliomas, 2 gangliogliomas, 2 dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumors, 4 glioneuronal malformations, 5 vascular malformations, and 10 glial or gliomesodermal scars. All specimens originated from patients with chronic pharmacoresistant epilepsy. In 73% of the cases there was a distinct difference in immunoreactivity for GABAR, GAD or NR1 between the perilesional zone and the normal cortex. With each of the markers there was reduced perilesional immunoreactivity in 30% of the specimens. Increased staining of GAD was seen in 17%, for GABAR in 7%, and for NR1 in 13% of the cases. The age at surgery, onset of seizures, epilepsy duration, and maximal seizure frequency did not differ significantly between patients with normal and those with altered perilesional immunoreactivity patterns. Although the perilesional changes for GAD, GABAR or NR1 were heterogeneous, they suggest a disturbed balance between excitatory and inhibitory synaptic transmission which may contribute to the pathogenesis of focal seizures.
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PMID:Perilesional neurochemical changes in focal epilepsies. 892 14

To design useful experimental models of epilepsy, it is necessary to clearly understand the known clinical-pathologic features of the disease process. Studies of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) patients have identified several distinctive clinical and pathophysiologic characteristics and many of these can be analyzed in experimental models. For example, patients with typical MTLE have medical histories that often contain an initial precipitating injury (IPI), are likely to have hippocampal sclerosis in the surgical specimen, and have better seizure outcomes than patients with typical idiopathic temporal seizures (i.e. cryptogenic). Hippocampal from children as young as age 1 year with IPI histories also demonstrate neuron damage similar to adults with hippocampal sclerosis. Compared to IPI patients without seizures (i.e. trauma, hypoxia, etc.), IPI cases with severe seizures showed younger ages at the IPI, shorter latent periods, and longer durations of habitual MTLE. Hippocampal damage is often bilateral, however, the epileptogenic side shows hippocampal sclerosis and the opposite side usually shows only mild neuron losses. Moreover, MTLE patients show declines in hippocampal neuron densities with very long histories of habitual seizures (15 to 20 years), however, the additional neuron loss adds to the template of hippocampal sclerosis and occurs in limited subfields (granule cells, CA1 and prosubiculum). Hippocampal axon and synaptic reorganization is another pathologic feature of MTLE, and involves granule cell mossy fibers and axons immunoreactive for neuropeptide upsilon, somatostatin, and glutamate decarboxylase (which synthesizes GABA). Finally, MTLE patients with hippocampal sclerosis show increased granule cell mRNA levels for brain derived neurotropic factor, nerve growth factor, and neurotrophin-3 that correlate with mossy fiber sprouting or with declines in Ammon's horn neuron densities. Taken together, our data support the following concepts: (1) The pathogenesis of MTLE is associated with IPI histories that probably injure the hippocampus at some time prior to habitual seizure onsets, (2) most of the damage seems to occur with the IPI, (3) there can be additional neuron loss associated with long histories, (4) another pathologic feature of MTLE is axon reorganization of surviving fascia dentata and hippocampal neurons, and (5) reorganized axon circuits probably contribute to seizure or propagation.
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PMID:The pathogenic and progressive features of chronic human hippocampal epilepsy. 898 97

This study determined whether there were differences in hippocampal neuron loss and synaptic plasticity by comparing rats with spontaneous epilepsy after limbic status epilepticus and animals with a similar frequency of kindled seizures. At the University of Virginia, Sprague-Dawley rats were implanted with bilateral ventral hippocampal electrodes and treated as follows; no stimulation (electrode controls; n=5): hippocampal stimulation without status (stimulation controls; n=5); and limbic status from continuous hippocampal stimulation (n=12). The limbic status group were electrographically monitored for a minimum of four weeks. Four rats had no recorded chronic seizures (status controls), and all three control groups showed no differences in hippocampal pathology and were therefore incorporated into a single group (controls). Eight limbic status animals eventually developed chronic epilepsy (spontaneous seizures) and an additional eight rats were kindled to a similar number and frequency of stage 5 seizures (kindled) as the spontaneous seizures group. At the University of California (UCLA) the hippocampi were processed for: (i) Niss1 stain for densitometric neuron counts; (ii) neo-Timm's histochemistry for mossy fiber sprouting; and (iii) immunocytochemical staining for glutamate decarboxylase, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit 2, AMPA receptor subunit 1 and the GABA(A) receptor. In the fascia dentata inner and outer molecular layers the neo-Timm's stain and immunoreactivity was quantified as gray values using computer image analysis techniques. Statistically significant results (P<0.05) showed the following. Compared to controls and kindled animals, rats with spontaneous seizures had: (i) lower neuron counts for the fascia dentata hilus, CA3 and CA1 stratum pyramidale; (ii) greater supragranular inner molecular layer mossy fiber staining; and (iii) greater glutamate decarboxylase immunoreactivity in both molecular layers. Greater supragranular excitatory mossy fiber and GABAergic axon sprouting correlated with: (i) increases in N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit 2 inner molecular layer staining; (ii) more AMPA receptor subunit 1 immunoreactivity in both molecular layers; and (iii) greater outer than inner molecular layer GABA(A) immunoreactivity. Furthermore, in contrast to kindled animals, rats with spontaneous seizures showed that increasing seizure frequency per week and the total number of natural seizures positively correlated with greater Timm's and GABAergic axon sprouting, and with increases in N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit 2 and AMPA receptor subunit 1 receptor staining. In this rat limbic status model these findings indicate that chronic seizures are associated with hippocampal neuron loss, reactive axon sprouting and increases in excitatory receptor plasticity that differ from rats with an equal frequency of kindled seizures and controls. The hippocampal pathological findings in the limbic status model are similar to those in humans with hippocampal sclerosis and mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, and support the hypothesis that synaptic reorganization of both excitatory and inhibitory systems in the fascia dentata is an important pathophysiological mechanism that probably contributes to or generates chronic limbic seizures.
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PMID:In contrast to kindled seizures, the frequency of spontaneous epilepsy in the limbic status model correlates with greater aberrant fascia dentata excitatory and inhibitory axon sprouting, and increased staining for N-methyl-D-aspartate, AMPA and GABA(A) receptors. 913 Jul 82

It has been found that the latency of epileptic seizures caused by glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) inhibitor 3-mercaptopropionate (3-MPA) is markedly longer in immature rats than in the adults. Time course of rat brain GAD inhibition was studied in 12-day-old and adult (90-day-old) animals following 3-MPA (70 mg/kg i.p.). GAD activity was determined by quantification of 14CO2 liberated from [1-(14)C]glutamate by supernatant 20,000 x g of brain homogenate prepared from rats killed at different intervals after 3-MPA administration. In adult rats, the enzyme activity decreased significantly by 14.1% even 1 min after 3-MPA administration and was decreasing gradually till the onset of seizures. In immature rats, GAD activity decrease after 1 min was by 41.4% and further decrease was smaller. Comparison of the time profiles of GAD changes in both groups confirmed our findings that in spite of delayed seizure onset, GAD inhibition in immature rats is more pronounced, probably due to immaturity of the blood-brain barrier.
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PMID:Inhibition of glutamate decarboxylase activity by 3-mercaptopropionic acid has different time course in the immature and adult rat brains. 915 44

gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA), the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian brain, is synthesized by two glutamate decarboxylase isoforms, GAD65 and GAD67. The separate role of the two isoforms is unknown, but differences in saturation with cofactor and subcellular localization suggest that GAD65 may provide reserve pools of GABA for regulation of inhibitory neurotransmission. We have disrupted the gene encoding GAD65 and backcrossed the mutation into the C57BL/6 strain of mice. In contrast to GAD67-/- animals, which are born with developmental abnormalities and die shortly after birth, GAD65-/- mice appear normal at birth. Basal GABA levels and holo-GAD activity are normal, but the pyridoxal 5' phosphate-inducible apo-enzyme reservoir is significantly decreased. GAD65-/- mice develop spontaneous seizures that result in increased mortality. Seizures can be precipitated by fear or mild stress. Seizure susceptibility is dramatically increased in GAD65-/- mice backcrossed into a second genetic background, the nonobese diabetic (NOD/LtJ) strain of mice enabling electroencephalogram analysis of the seizures. The generally higher basal brain GABA levels in this backcross are significantly decreased by the GAD65-/- mutation, suggesting that the relative contribution of GABA synthesized by GAD65 to total brain GABA levels is genetically determined. Seizure-associated c-fos-like immunoreactivity reveals the involvement of limbic regions of the brain. These data suggest that GABA synthesized by GAD65 is important in the dynamic regulation of neural network excitability, implicate at least one modifier locus in the NOD/LtJ strain, and present GAD65-/- animals as a model of epilepsy involving GABA-ergic pathways.
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PMID:Epilepsy in mice deficient in the 65-kDa isoform of glutamic acid decarboxylase. 939 Nov 52

Compared with studies on models of neurodegenerative diseases, considerably less work has been performed with neural grafts in experimental epilepsy. The potential value of this approach, however, is already shown by evidence that noradrenergic grafts implanted bilaterally into the hippocampus or amygdala-piriform cortex can suppress seizure development in the kindling model of temporal lobe epilepsy. We previously showed that amygdala kindling results in a significant decrease of GABA and its synthesizing enzyme glutamate decarboxylase in substantia nigra (SN), i.e., a region thought to be critically involved in seizure propagation in various models of epilepsy. Thus, transplantation of fetal GABAergic neurons into SN might be an effective means of permanently blocking seizure generalization in kindling epilepsy and probably also other types of epilepsy. To test this hypothesis, three groups of female Wistar rats (n = 10 per group) were kindled by electrical stimulation via a bipolar electrode in the basolateral amygdala. After all rats were fully kindled, one group was implanted with GABA-rich cells prepared from the striatal eminence of Wistar rat fetuses at embryonic day 14. The striatal neurons were bilaterally microinjected at various sites over the anterior-posterior axis of the SN, aimed at the pars reticulata. The second group received microinjections of spinal cord cell preparations, whereas the third group received microinjections of cell-free medium only. In all rats, the threshold for focal discharges (afterdischarge threshold [ADT]) as well as afterdischarge duration and severity and duration of seizures occurring at ADT current were determined once weekly before and after transplantation. Eleven to 12 weeks following transplantation, the rats were killed, and location and integration of grafts were examined by immunohistological methods. Rats with GABAergic grafts in SN exhibited a significant increase in ADT and marked reduction in seizure severity compared with pretransplantation values, whereas no such alteration was seen in the other groups. However, the seizure-suppressing effect of GABAergic grafts was not permanent but slowly disappeared over the weeks after transplantation. Although the data indicate that intranigral transplantation of GABA-producing cells is no effective means of inducing long-lasting anticonvulsant effects in experimental epilepsy, this approach may be an initial step to develop more efficient strategies for seizure suppression.
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PMID:Seizure suppression in kindling epilepsy by grafts of fetal GABAergic neurons in rat substantia nigra. 946 73


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