? Temporal lobe epilepsy involves spontaneous recurrent seizures following a latent period from the initial injury or insult. Temporal lobe epilepsy is also associated with hippocampal sclerosis (neuron loss mostly in the hilus and in CA1 and CA3 areas). Women with temporal lobe epilepsy have a high incidence of reproductive disorders, a phenomenon which has remained unexplored in animal models of epilepsy. In clinical studies, basal and pulsatile release of luetinizing hormone is altered in women with temporal lobe epilepsy. The pulsatile release of luetinizing hormone closely follows that of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH), and these tightly regulated pulses are crucial in orchestrating normal menstrual/estrous cycles. The general hypothesis is that status epilepticus and/or the chronic state of epilepsy alters the GnRH system.
Specific Aim 1 will determine whether status epilepticus and/or epilepsy cause a decrease in the number of GnRH cells.
Specific Aim 2 will determine whether there is an alteration in the level of synaptic innervation of GnRH-expressing neurons. The proposed experiments should reveal how temporal lobe epilepsy and histopathological damage to the limbic system affect the GnRH system, and whether the disorders in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy arise from a loss of GnRH neurons or a loss of synaptic input to these neurons. ? ?
| Fawley, Jessica A; Pouliot, Wendy A; Dudek, F Edward (2006) Epilepsy and reproductive disorders: the role of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone network. Epilepsy Behav 8:477-82 |
