Altered Expression Of DSCAM In Temporal Lobe Tissue Of Human And Experimental Animals

Down's syndrome cell adhesion molecule (Dscam) is a neural adhesion molecule that plays an essential role in the establishment of neural circuits. Considerable evidence suggests that Dscam is required for axon guidance and dendrite arborization. Our aim was to investigate the expression of Dscam in the temporal lobe of patients with intractable epilepsy (IE) and experimental animals. In the present study, we used immunohistochemistry and western blotting to examine the Dscam expression in thirty-five surgical samples from brains of IE patients and 15 control brain samples. We also measured the levels of Dscam during the entire epileptic process in a rat model of temporal lobe epilepsy. Dscam expression in IE patients was significantly higher as compared with the controls. On the other hand, we observed a dynamic variation of Dscam expression during different phases of the epileptic process. These results provide new insight into the potential role of Dscam in the pathophysiology of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).