Neuronal cyclin expression in the hippocampus in temporal lobe epilepsy.

This study used immunocytochemistry to explore the expression of cyclins A, B, D, and E and the apoptosis-associated Bax protein in hippocampal subfields of 35 lobectomy specimens with medial temporal lobe sclerosis removed for the treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), 2 age-matched controls, and 2 elderly patients suffering from drug-responsive epilepsy. Cyclins A and D were not detected at all in neuronal nuclei. Cyclin E was only rarely detected in neuronal nuclei in drug-controlled and TLE groups and in controls. Cyclin B was expressed in significantly more neuronal nuclei in the hippocampi in TLE than in the other groups studied. The nuclear expression of these proteins suggested that neurons had reentered the cell division cycle and reached the G2 phase. The nuclear expression of cyclin B in the hippocampus from these patients was accompanied by neuronal cytoplasmic expression of the death-related Bax protein. We interpret these neuronal findings as evidence of cell cycle disturbances and a possible apoptotic mechanism of hippocampal neuronal cell death in TLE. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.