Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder with many causes. For temporal lobe epilepsy, antecedent insults are typically found. These risk factors include trauma or history of long fever-associated seizures (febrile status epilepticus) in childhood. Whereas the mechanisms by which such insults promote temporal lobe epilepsy are unknown, an extensive body of work has implicated inflammation and...

Commentary The dentate gyrus (DG) is thought to serve as a gate regulating the spread of excitatory input from the entorhinal cortex into the hippocampus (1). Breakdown of this gating function in the DG has been hypothesized to promote development of epileptogenesis in temporal lobe epilepsy (1, 2). A variety of pathological changes in DG granule cells in animal models and patients with tempora...

background: we investigated the effects of carbamazepine (cbz) on semen parameters in men with newly diagnosed epilepsy, by performing semen analysis before starting any antiepileptic drugs, and then after starting cbz, to determine the role and effects of cbz in creating abnormalities in sperm analysis in these patients. methods: in this prospective study, eight male patients 20-40 years of ag...

Since the development of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's Disease, DBS has been suggested as a treatment option for various other neurological disorders. Stimulation of deep brain structures for refractory epilepsy appears to be a safe treatment option with promising results. As research on the evaluation and optimization of DBS for refractory epilepsy may be difficult and unethical...

The perirhinal cortex-which is interconnected with several limbic structures and is intimately involved in learning and memory-plays major roles in pathological processes such as the kindling phenomenon of epileptogenesis and the spread of limbic seizures. Both features may be relevant to the pathophysiology of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy that represents the most refractory adult form of epil...

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder with many causes. For temporal lobe epilepsy, antecedent insults are typically found. These risk factors include trauma or history of long fever-associated seizures (febrile status epilepticus) in childhood. Whereas the mechanisms by which such insults promote temporal lobe epilepsy are unknown, an extensive body of work has implicated inflammation and...

Epilepsy affects 1-2 % of the population. For 30 % of these patients, their syndrome will be refractory to medical treatment. To improve our understanding and treatment of the epilepsies, we need to develop clinically relevant animal models. As temporal lobe epilepsy is often preceded by prolonged febrile seizures and in our population associated with a focal cortical dysplasia, we hypothesised...

TbetaRs (transforming growth factor beta receptors) have recently been identified in animal experiments as being involved in the pathogenesis of epilepsy. The aim of the present study was to understand further the potential effects of TbetaRs in human epilepsy. Tissue samples of temporal neocortices from 30 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy were prepared for detecting TbetaR-I (type 1 TbetaR...