Astrocytes and epilepsy | VUMC Reporter

by Leigh MacMillan

The neurodevelopmental dysfunction Tuberous Sclerosis Complicated (TSC) is characterised by usually extreme epilepsy, together with autism and psychiatric problems. Astrocytes — star-shaped glial cells that serve a number of capabilities within the mind — are suspected to play a task in TSC.

Robert Carson, MD, PhD, and colleagues proposed that the water channel aquaporin-4 (AQP4), which is vital to the capabilities of astrocytes, contributes to TSC illness pathology.

Reporting in Neurobiology of Illness, they discovered elevated expression of AQP4 in cortical mind tissue faraway from TSC sufferers throughout epilepsy surgical procedure. Utilizing mouse fashions and cultured astrocytes, they demonstrated that inactivation of the genes Tsc1 or Tsc2 (mutations in these genes trigger TSC) resulted in elevated AQP4 expression.

Elevated AQP4 expression has been beforehand reported in temporal lobe epilepsy, supporting a broader position for this protein in astrocyte dysfunction that results in seizure exercise. AQP4 could symbolize a novel therapeutic goal for the remedy of epilepsy in TSC and maybe different seizure problems.

This analysis was supported by the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (grants NS083710, NS056872).