Abnormal Expression Of Stathmin1in Brain Tissue Of Patients With Intractable Temporal Lobe Epilepsy And A Rat Model

Microtubule dynamics have been shown to contribute to neuriteoutgrowth, branching and guidance. Stathmin1(STMN1) is a potentmicrotubule-destabilizing factor that is involved in the regulation ofmicrotubule dynamics and plays an essential role in neurite elongation andsynaptic plasticity. Here, we investigate the expression of STMN1in thebrain tissues of patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) andexperimental animals using immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescenceand Western blot. We obtained thirty-two temporal neocortex tissuesamples from patients with intractable TLE and twelve histologicallynormal temporal lobe tissues as controls. In addition, forty-eightSprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into six groups, including onecontrol group and five groups with epilepsy induced by lithiumchloride-pilocarpine. Hippocampal and temporal lobe tissues were obtainedfrom control and epileptic rats on days1,7,14,30and60after kindling.STMN1was mainly expressed in the neuronal membrane and cytoplasm inthe human controls, and its expression levels were significantly higher in patients with intractable TLE. Moreover, STMN1was also expressed in theneurons of both the control and experimental rats. STMN1expression wasdecreased in the experimental animals from1to14days post-seizure andthen significantly increased at days30and60compared with the controlgroup. Many protruding neuronal processes were observed in the TLEpatients and in the chronic stage epileptic rats. These data suggest thatSTMN1may participate in the abnormal network reorganization ofsynapses and contribute to the pathogenesis of TLE.