Date Added: 2008-01-25 06:30:31

Immunotherapy Weekly via NewsEdge Corporation :

2008 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com) -- Investigators publish new data in the report 'Innate and adaptive immunity during epileptogenesis and spontaneous seizures: evidence from experimental models and human temporal lobe epilepsy.' According to recent research from Milano, Italy, "We investigated the activation of the IL-1 beta system and markers of adaptive immunity in rat brain during epileptogenesis using models of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) (see also Epilepsy Immunology). The same inflammatory markers were studied in rat chronic epileptic tissue and in human TLE with hippocampal sclerosis (HS)."

"IL-1 beta was expressed by both activated microglia and astrocytes within 4 h from the onset of status epilepticus (SE) in forebrain areas recruited in epileptic activity; however, only astrocytes sustained inflammation during epileptogenesis. Activation of the IL-1 beta system during epileptogenesis was associated with neurodegeneration and blood-brain barrier breakdown. In rat and human chronic epileptic tissue, IL-1 beta and IL-1 receptor type 1 were broadly expressed by astrocytes, microglia and neurons. Granulocytes appeared transiently in rat brain during epileptogenesis while monocytes/macrophages were present in the hippocampus from 18 h after SE onset until chronic seizures develop, and they were found also in human TLE hippocampi. In rat and human epileptic tissue, only scarce B-and T-lymphocytes and NK cells were found mainly associated with microvessels," wrote T. Ravizza and colleagues, Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Department of Neuroscience.

The researchers concluded: "These data show that specific inflammatory pathways are chronically activated during epileptogenesis and they persist in chronic epileptic tissue, suggesting they may contribute to the etiopathogenesis of TLE."

Ravizza and colleagues published their study in Neurobiology of Disease (Innate and adaptive immunity during epileptogenesis and spontaneous seizures: evidence from experimental models and human temporal lobe epilepsy. Neurobiology of Disease, 2008;29(1):142-60).

For additional information, contact T. Ravizza, Laboratory of Experimental Neurology, Dept. of Neuroscience, Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Milano, Italy.

Publisher contact information for the journal Neurobiology of Disease is: Academic Press Inc. Elsevier Science, 525 B St., Ste. 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA.

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