Cerebrospinal fluid apolipoprotein E concentration decreases after seizure

PURPOSE In epilepsy, many studies were focus on apoE gene polymorphism and found APOE epsilon4 to be associated with earlier onset of temporal lobe epilepsy. There is not any study about apoE in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of epileptic patients, so we detect the CSF-apoE and determine whether it is changed after seizure. METHODS A total of 60 epileptic patients and 28 subjects with no evidence of any neurological diseases were studied. The concentrations of CSF-apoE were detected with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS The CSF-apoE levels in epilepsy and control group were 5.78+/-2.15 mg/l and 13.60+/-12.11 mg/l, and there were statistical difference. In epilepsy group, the CSF-apoE concentration was 6.53+/-2.55 mg/l in male patients, and 4.98+/-1.21 mg/l in female. In secondary epilepsy group was 5.06+/-1.31 mg/l, and in idiopathic epilepsy was 6.04+/-2.34 mg/l. In different seizure types groups, including complex partial seizure (CPS), secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizure (SGTC), generalized tonic-clonic seizure (GTCS), and absence seizure (AS), the mean concentrations of CSF-apoE were 6.62+/-3.13 mg/l, 5.21+/-1.22 mg/l, 5.00+/-1.09 mg/l and 7.25+/-1.88 mg/l, respectively. CONCLUSIONS CSF-apoE concentration decreases after seizures, correlated with the gender, etiological factor and seizure types.