The Overexpression And Significance Of Neuron Growth-Associated Protein-43 In The Patients With Pharmacoresistance Epilepsy

Objective:This study was to investigate expression of Neuron growth-associated protein-43 in the temporal lobe tissue from the patients with pharmacoresistance epilepsy and explore the possible functions of metabolism in the pathogenesis of pharmacoresistance epilepsyData and Methods: 42 patients were diagnosed as intractable epilepsy .Th-e type of seizure in the patients was determined in accordance with the inte-rnational Classification of Epileptic Seizures specified by the International League Against Antiepilepsy in 1981. There were 23 males and 19 females; their ages ranged from 10 to 58 years, with a mean of 24.35±10.5 years(?X±S)years. 27 patients had generalized tonic-clonic seizures, 13 had complex partial seizures, and 2 had simple partial seizures. A total of 20 control sub-jects were included in this study. Among them, 12 were males and 8 femal-es, whose ages ranged from 9 to 64 years with a mean of 25.10±9.5 years (?X±S). All controls were local residents from Chongqing who died accid-entally, such as from traffic accidents during 2004 to 2005 and were autop-syed legally.Operative specimens from the patients and those from the controls were taken out from the bodies. Some tissues were immediately stored in liquid nitrogen for microarray scanning, and the others were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde at 40C for 48h and embedded conventionally in paraffin. Immunohistochemistry is used to test the tissue's GAP-43 protein and phosphorylated tau protein; the computer graphic Analysis System is used to test the optical density which is expressed as mean±SD(?X±S)and tested via t-test.Results:1. Gene Microarray Scanning:There is a distinct difference between the gene expressions of GAP-43 protein in the brain tissues of the control group and in those of the gene microarray scanned group (Cy5/Cy3=2.125).2.Immunohistochemistry:Under the microscope, neurons cell body,tapetum and axon were stained brown-yellow granule,especia- lly neurons cell membrane. And quantitative analysis show us:(1)The expression GAP-43 of in experiment group was significantly higher than control group (p<0.05).(2)Hippocampus were higher expressed than temporal lobe cortex.Conclusions: 1. While screening the gene changes of pharmacoresistance epilepsy, gene microarray is characterized by high speed, large capacity and high agility. Because gene microarray maybe results in pseudo-positive and pseudo-negative findings, we should use other method to verify its result ,such as immunohistochemistry.2. GAP-43 in the brains of patients with pharmacoresistance epilepsy are higher expressed than those of controls in gene and protein levels.3. The most evident pathological chang in drug-refractory epilepsy is hippocampal mossy fibers sprouting, Hippocampal mossy fiber sprouting are associated with upregulated expression of GAP-43 protein., event that may be a crucial factor in hippocampal synaptic reorganization in patients with pharmacoresistance epilepsy.4. Regulating the expression of the protein may provid a new approach to develop new anti-epileptic medicine...