Protein expression of phospho-lim kinase-1 in patients and an experimental rat model with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy.

Lim kinase-1 (LIMK1) plays a critical role in dendritic spine morphogenesis and brain function. The protein expression pattern of phospho-LIMK1 (p-LIMK1), the active form of LIMK1, in intractable temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), however, is unknown. Here we measured p-LIMK1 protein expression in thirty temporal neocortex tissue samples from intractable TLE patients, fifteen histologically normal temporal neocortex tissue samples from trauma patients without epilepsy, in the hippocampi of lithium chloride/pilocarpine-induced TLE rats, and in controls. We found that p-LIMK1 was expressed mainly in the cytoplasm of neurons. The protein expression of p-LIMK1 was significantly higher in the TLE patients and rats than in the control groups. Our results suggest that p-LIMK1 might be involved in the pathogenesis of intractable TLE.