ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: To compare the frequency of intrathecal immunoglobulin (Ig) synthesis in patients with symptomatic epilepsy and epilepsy of unknown etiology ('cryptogenic'). METHODS: Patients with epileptic (n = 301) and non-epileptic (n = 10) seizures were retrospectively screened for autochthonous intrathecal Ig synthesis and oligoclonal bands (OCBs) in the cerebrospinal fluid. RESULTS: Intrathecal IgG/OCBs were detected in 8% of patients with epilepsies of unknown etiology, 5% of patients with first seizures of unknown cause and 0-4% of patients with epilepsy due to brain tumors, cerebrovascular disease or other etiologies. Intrathecal IgG/OCBs were not seen in patients with psychogenic seizures. Identical OCBs in serum and cerebrospinal fluid were more common in all patient groups (10-40% depending on underlying etiology). CONCLUSIONS: Intrathecal IgG synthesis/OCBs were observed slightly more frequently in patients with 'cryptogenic' epilepsy and with first seizures of unknown etiology than in other patient groups. However, this remained an infrequent finding and thus we could not confirm humoral immunity as a leading disease mechanism in patients with epilepsy in general or with unknown etiology in particular.
Subject(s)
Epilepsy/cerebrospinal fluid , Immunoglobulins/cerebrospinal fluid , Spinal Cord/metabolism , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Child , Epilepsy/etiology , Epilepsy/immunology , Female , Humans , Immunoglobulin A/biosynthesis , Immunoglobulin A/cerebrospinal fluid , Immunoglobulin G/biosynthesis , Immunoglobulin G/cerebrospinal fluid , Immunoglobulin M/biosynthesis , Immunoglobulin M/cerebrospinal fluid , Immunoglobulins/biosynthesis , Male , Middle Aged , Oligoclonal Bands/cerebrospinal fluid , Oligoclonal Bands/immunology , Retrospective Studies , Seizures/cerebrospinal fluid , Seizures/immunology , Seizures/metabolism , Young AdultABSTRACT
The large EcoRI fragment of mouse ribosomal genes containing parts of the non-transcribed spacer, the external transcribed spacer located at the 5' end of the precursor molecule and about two thirds of the 18S sequence has been cloned in bacteriophage lambda gtWES. A physical map of the DNA was constructed by cleavage with several restriction endonucleases and hybridization of the restriction fragments of the recombinant DNA with labelled 18S and 45S rRNA. The orientation of the inserted fragment as well as the length of the 18S sequence was determined by electron microscopy of R-loop containing molecules. The absence of hybridization of the cloned fragment to other fragments in the genome shows that the non-transcribed spacer does not have a significant length of sequences in common with other sequences in the genome.
