Cellular neuropathology.pdf

Short communication Acta Neurobiol Exp 2011, 71: 263–268 ? 2011 by Polish Neuroscience Society - PTBUN, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology Absence epilepsy is a non-convulsive generalized form of epilepsy, which is characterized by a brief impairment of consciousness (so-called episodes of ‘absences’) with minimal myoclonic jerks of eyes and perioral automatisms. Absence seizures in human patients are accompanied by 3 Hz spike-and-wave dis- charges in the electroencephalogram (EEG; Panayiotopoulos 1999). Absence-like behavioral mani- festations and characteristic spike-and-wave discharg- es have been reported in some inbred rodent strains, such as Genetic Absence Epilepsy Rats from Strasbourg, GAERS, and Wistar Albino Glaxo from Rijswijk, WAG/Rij rats (Coenen and van Luijtelaar 2003, Depaulis and van Luijtelaar 2005). Both strains have genetic predisposition to absence epilepsy and they are regarded as reliable animal models of this disease. One of the most remarkable findings in rat models of absence epilepsy is determining a focal epi- leptic zone in neocortex (Meeren et al. 2002, reviewed in van Luijtelaar and Sitnikova 2006). In particular, spike-and-wave discharges are known to be initiated by neurons located in deep layers of the somatosensory cortex (D’Antuono et al. 2006), and a single microin- jection of penicillin in this region is capable of induc- ing epileptiform activity (Tutkun et al. 2010). Within a few ms epileptic discharges became generalized: they quickly spread over the cortex and invade the thalamus (Meeren et al. 2002). No structural brain abnormalities have been report- ed in patients with absence epilepsy and, therefore, absence epilepsy is considered as a purely functional disorder. Histological examination of brain tissue in patients with typical absence epilepsy is almost impos- sible for ethical reasons as these patients are not ame- nable to surgical treatment or any invasive investiga- tions. A solely rep