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  • 1
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Acta neuropathologica 91 (1996), S. 376-384 
    ISSN: 1432-0533
    Keywords: Key words Epilepsy ; Immunohistochemistry ; Neurotransmitter ; Pathology ; Tumor
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Medicine
    Notes: Abstract 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 α1 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 for 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.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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  • 2
    ISSN: 1432-0533
    Keywords: Key words Ammon’s horn sclerosis ; Amygdala ; Hippocampus ; Pathology ; Seizures
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Medicine
    Notes: Abstract Although clinical and electrophysiological evidence indicates that the amygdaloid body plays an important role in the pathogenesis of temporal lobe epilepsy, there are very few detailed data on histopathological changes in this nucleus in epilepsy patients. In the present study we have examined the lateral nucleus of the amygdaloid body in 70 surgical specimens from patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and in 10 control specimens with respect to neuronal density and gliosis. The results were compared to the neuronal loss in the hippocampal formation. Our goal was to examine the pathological alterations of the amygdaloid body and their correlation with other morphological changes in temporal lobe epilepsy. In epilepsy patients with Ammon’s horn sclerosis or focal lesions of the temporal lobe, the neuronal density of the lateral amygdaloid nucleus was significantly decreased as compared to normal controls (P 〈 0.001). Overall, the mean volumetric density in epilepsy patients was reduced to 59% of that in normal individuals. There was no correlation between the neuronal density in the lateral amygdaloid nucleus and that in the different segments of the hippocampal formation or to the age at onset or the duration of epilepsy. The neuronal loss of the amygdaloid nucleus correlated well with the presence of fibrillary gliosis. Our findings demonstrate that the amygdaloid body is severely altered in most patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and that these changes are independent of those in the hippocampus. The presence of neuronal loss and gliosis in the amygdaloid nucleus of patients with focal lesions but no Ammon’s horn sclerosis is compatible with an involvement of the amygdala in secondary epileptogenesis.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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  • 3
    ISSN: 1432-0533
    Keywords: Key words Stem cell ; Tumor ; Malformation ; Epilepsy ; Ganglioglioma
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Medicine
    Notes: Abstract The etiology and pathogenesis of complex focal lesions associated with chronic, intractable epilepsy are largely unknown. Some data indicate that malformative changes of the central nervous system may preceed the development of gangliogliomas and other epilepsy-associated neoplasms. In the present immunhistochemical study, we have examined epilepsy-associated lesions for CD34, a stem cell marker transiently expressed during early neurulation. Surprisingly, most tissue samples from patients with chronic epilepsy (n = 262) revealed neural cells immunoreactive for CD34. Prominent immunoreactivity was detected in gangliogliomas (74%), low-grade astrocytomas (62%) and oligodendrogliomas (59%). Only 52% of non-neoplastic, malformative pathologies, such as glio-neuronal hamartias or hamartomas showed solitary or small clusters of CD34-immunoreactive cells. None of the adult control tissues (n = 22), none of the specimens obtained from the developing human brain (n = 44) and none of those tumor samples from patients without epilepsy (n = 63) contained CD34-immunoreactive neural cells. However, a malignant teratoma with microscopic features of early neural differentiation displayed a focal CD34-immunoreactive staining pattern. The majority of CD34-immunoreactive cells co-localized with S-100 protein and a small subpopulation was also immunoreactive for neuronal antigens. CD34 may, thus, represent a valuable marker for the diagnostic evaluation of neoplastic and/or malformative pathological changes in epilepsy patients. The CD34 immunoreactivity of these lesions indicates an origin from dysplastic or atypically differentiated neural precursors. Further studies may elucidate the functional significance of CD34 expression during the pathogenesis of epilepsy-related focal lesions as well as during neurogenesis.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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  • 4
    ISSN: 1432-0533
    Keywords: Key words Expression ; NF1 ; Tumor ; Brain ; Neurofibroma
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Medicine
    Notes: Abstract The close association of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) with gliomas raises the question of whether the NF1 gene may be involved in the pathogenesis of sporadic astrocytic brain tumors. However, no frequent mutations within NF1 have been described in these tumors. Recent data on a limited series of gliomas indicate that NF1 expression may even be increased, thereby questioning the role of NF1 as a tumor suppressor in astrocytomas. In the present study, we examined the expression of NF1 in a series of 96 tumors including astrocytomas, meningiomas and plexiform neurofibromas. NF1 RNA transcription levels were compared to those of the reference genes B2M, ACTB and GAPD. The expression of OMGP, which is interposed in the NF1 gene, served as an additional control. NF1 expression did not significantly diverge among different malignancy stages of astrocytomas. As expected, the plexiform neurofibromas showed only very low NF1 expression. A striking finding was the highly variable expression of those genes selected to serve as references. While B2M and ACTB exhibited comparable levels of expression within different grades of astrocytomas and meningiomas, GAPD showed an inverse pattern in these tumors. In conclusion, NF1 expression is strongly reduced in NF1-associated plexiform neurofibromas but not in astrocytic tumors. The significant differences between B2M, ACTB and GAPD transcript levels brings into question the common practice of defining gene expression as a ratio between the transcripts of interest and those of these reference genes.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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  • 5
    ISSN: 1432-0533
    Keywords: Key words Chromosome 9 ; Chromosome 16 ; Epilepsy ; Hamartoma ; Pathology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Medicine
    Notes: Abstract Glioneuronal malformations with a striking histological resemblance to cortical tubers of tuberous sclerosis, but no extracerebral stigmata of this phacomatosis, are frequently encountered in patients with chronic pharmacoresistant epilepsies. It is controversial as to whether these lesion represent a forme fruste of tuberous sclerosis or a distinct entity. The recently reported loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at the regions of the TSC1 or TSC2 locus in hamartomas obtained from different organs of patients with established tuberous sclerosis, including cortical tubers, stimulated us to examine epilepsy-associated tuberous sclerosis-like glioneuronal malformations with respect to LOH at the TSC1 and TSC2 loci of chromosomes 9q34 and 16p13.3, respectively. The analysis was carried out on DNA derived from paraffin-embedded brain tissues of 11 patients. For 5 patients, peripheral blood leukocytes were also available for DNA extraction. We performed microsatellite analysis with five markers on chromosome 9 and four markers on chromosome 16. In addition, polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis was performed using a polymorphic EcoRV restriction site in exon 40 of the TSC2 gene. No LOH was identified in any of the cases. These findings do not support a relationship between the epilepsy-associated glioneuronal lesions and tuberous sclerosis. However, tuberous sclerosis is genetically heterogeneous and microsatellite and RFLP analysis cannot exclude small deletions or point mutations. Thus, given the histopathological similarity of glioneuronal malformations in epilepsy patients to cortical tubers, further molecular genetic studies will be needed as our understanding of the molecular basis of tuberous sclerosis increases to completely clarify the relationship of these lesions to tuberous sclerosis.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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  • 6
    ISSN: 1432-0533
    Keywords: Key words Epilepsy ; Immunohistochmistry ; Receptor ; Neurotransmitter ; Tumor
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Medicine
    Notes: Abstract Oligodendrogliomas and dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumors (DNT) are frequently associated with epilepsies and share the presence of oligodendroglia-like cells with small round nuclei and optically empty perinuclear halos. The two entities may be difficult to discriminate in small surgical specimens and the origin and differentiation of the oligodendroglia-like cells has been controversial. To better characterize and distinguish the two entities we examined 25 oligodendrogliomas and 16 DNT immunohistochemically for the presence of the proliferation–associated Ki-67 antigen and the following neural antigens: the α1 subunit of the GABAA receptor (GABAR), N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor subunit 1 (NR1), glutamate decarboxylase, neuronal nuclei antigen (NeuN), the embryonal form of the neural cell adhesion molecule (E-NCAM), synaptophysin, neurofilament protein (NFP), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Labeling indices for the Ki-67 antigens were generally less than 1% in both entities. In oligodendrogliomas, more than 50% of the tumors contained NR1- or E-NCAM-positive oligodendroglia-like cells, whereas NeuN-positive tumor cells were never observed. In DNT, NeuN- and NR1-positive tumor cells were present in 44% of the cases each; E-NCAM positivity was less frequent (19%). In both entities, immunoreactivity of oligodendroglia-like cells for GABAR and glutamate decarboxylase was rare and positivity for synaptophysin and neurofilament protein was absent. Some GFAP-positive tumor cells were present in approximately 70% of the cases in both entities. Except for the striking difference in NeuN positivity, the immunohistochemical profiles of oligodendroglia-like cells in DNT and oligodendrogliomas largely overlap and the differential diagnosis continues to rest mainly on conventional histopathological features. The NR1 positivity and the recently reported generation of action potentials in oligodendroglioma cells are consistent with neuronal differentiation and may contribute to the high epileptogenic potential of oligodendrogliomas.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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