RESUMO
The concept that the immune system plays a role in the epileptogenesis was first proposed more than 20 years ago. Since then, several laboratory and clinical studies have reported on the existence of a variety of immunological abnormalities in epileptic patients, on the observation of favourable responses of refractory epilepsy syndromes to immunomodulatory treatment, and on the association of epilepsy with certain well-known immunemediated disorders. In this study we try to verify if there is a link between pharmacoresistant epilepsy and immune system. We compared the serum levels of IgA, IL-2, IL-6, and TNF-a, in 45 patients with pharmacoresponsive epilepsy, in 30 patients with pharmacoresistant epilepsy and in 15 healthy reference subjects. Low serum levels of IgA were found in epileptic patients than reference subjects and in pharmacoresistance epilepsy group than pharmacoresponsive epileptic group .There were significant high serum levels of IL-2, IL-6 and TNF-a in epileptic patients than reference subjects and in pharmacoresistance group than pharmacoresponsive epileptic group. There was significant association between the serum levels of the IL-2, IL-6 and TNF-a and frequency of seizures and not the duration of the epilepsy or its type. These results give additional evidence for activation of the cytokine network and the magnitude of these changes is related to severity of seizures. Since this activation may promote important neuromodulatory functions and may serve as a link between excessive neuronal activity and various immunological changes that can lead to refractoriness of seizures