Hormonal effects on signal transduction and angiogenesis in the neocortex and hippocampus in women with medial sclerosis epilepsy in the reproductive period

• Grant number: 09/07558-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2009
• End date: July 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Physiology of Organs and Systems
• Principal Investigator: Debora Amado Scerni
• Grantee: Magali Luci Pinto
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 05/56661-9 - Temporal lobe epilepsy: a study correlating brain image, morphological features, electrophysiological findings, hormonal and neurochemical aspects in humans with and without mesial temporal sclerosis, AP.CINAPCE.TEM

Abstract

Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy represents for 60% of the temporal lobe epilepsies, and it is intensively studied because of its high incidence and its resistance to pharmacological treatment. This type of epilepsy is associated with hippocampal sclerosis, the most common epileptogenic lesion wich is characterized by neuronal loss, ectopic neurons, formation of amyloid bodies, dispersion of granular bodies, cortical dysplasia, and gliosis. The endocrine system plays a direct role in the pathogenesis of epilepsy, and although other mechanisms have been proposed to explain catamenial epilepsy, cyclic alterations of progesterone and estrogen are the main factors involved in the disease. Recent attempts to control epilepsy have focused on manipulation of central steroids, but the signaling pathways and the structural features involved in the role of glycocorticoids in the disease remain to be determined. As studies have so far investigated the role of a specific central steroid, in the present study we intend to determine and correlate the various hormonal factors with the signaling pathways and angiogenesis during the reproductive period of women with epilepsy of the mesial temporal lobe. For this purpose our studies will be based on Western Blotting and real time PCR techniques in order to analyse the levels of the estrogen, progesterone, CREB, MAPK, GAFP, VEGF and Kinin B1 and B2 receptors. (AU)