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Objective To explore the role and expression of cell apoptosis regulatory genes in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy characterized by hippocampus sclerosis.Methods The experimental specimens were obtained from 15 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (epilepsy group) and 6 control samples (control group) were obtained from temporal lobe excision of brain trauma decompression,investigated neuron apoptosis by HE stain,TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL) method,and determined the expression of bcl-2,bax and caspase-3 by immunohistochemistry.Results The evidence of neuron apoptosis was not found by HE stain in both control group and epilepsy group.Positive cells was not found in control group,but was obviously observed in epilepsy group by TUNEL staining [(4.39 ± 2.04) numbers/100].Unlike that in normal adult brain,bcl-2 immunoreactivity was obviously observed in some neurons in epilepsy group[(6.72 ± 3.36) numbers/100] (P ＜ 0.01).Compared with control group,bax protein in epilepsy group was mild expression (P ＞ 0.05).Two cases in control group were detected the expression of caspase-3 protein,and caspase-3 significantly increased in epilepsy group [(1.07 ± 0.43),(9.54 ± 3.68) numbers/100] (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions Neuron apoptosis is an important cause of hippocampal sclerosis of human epilepsy.bcl-2 and caspase-3 may play an important role in this process.
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Objective Diffusion tensor imaging(DTI)was used to explore the characteristics of white matter (WM)microstruc-ture lesion in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy(TLE)and hippocampal sclerosis(HS).Then we investigated the influence of the age of epilepsy onset and the course on WM changes.Methods DTI data were obtained in 30 TLE patients with HS and 23 age and sex-matched healthy controls.Thirteen patients had left HS (LHS)and seventeen had right HS (RHS).Between-group compari-sons of fractional anisotropy (FA)were carried out by using track-based spatial statistics (TBSS).In addition,FA in regions of in-terest (ROI)where white matter lesions had statistically significant difference was correlated with the age of onset and the course. Results Subjects in the LHS group,as compared to healthy controls,demonstrated these clusters of reduced FA:bilateral corona radiata,the left genu of corpus callosum,the right body and splenium of corpus callosum,the right posterior thalamic radiation,ex-ternal capsule and superior longitudinal fasciculus.White the subjects in the RHS group,the clusters of reduced FA are involving bi-lateral corpus callosum,corona radiata,posterior thalamic radiation,cingulum,superior longitudinal fasciculus,and the right ante-rior limb of internal capsule,the right retrolenticular part of internal capsule and external capsule.In LHS group,the FA of the left genu of corpus callosum was negatively correlated with the course,and the FA of the right anterior corona radiata was positively cor-related with the age of onset.In RHS group,the FA of the bilateral superior corona radiata was positively correlated with the course.Conclusion DTI detects extensive changes in TLE with HS that are not confined to temporal lobe.The age of epilepsy onset in LHS was correlated with the changes of anterior corona radiata,while the course and the WM change were not definitely linked to each other.