A Hit, a Hit-A Very Palpable Hit: Mild TBI and the Development of Epilepsy.

A Hit, a Hit-A Very Palpable Hit: Mild TBI and the Development of Epilepsy.
Epilepsy Curr. 2019 Jun 17;:1535759719854758
Authors: Danzer SC
Abstract
Repetitive Diffuse Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Causes An Atypical Astrocyte Response and Spontaneous Recurrent Seizures Shandra O, Winemiller AR, Heithoff BP, et al. J Neurosci. 2019;39(10):1944-1963. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1067-18.2018. Epub 2019 Jan 21. PMID: 30665946 . Focal traumatic brain injury (TBI) induces astrogliosis, a process essential to protecting uninjured brain areas from secondary damage. However, astrogliosis can cause loss of astrocyte homeostatic functions and possibly contributes to comorbidities such as posttraumatic epilepsy (PTE). Scar-forming astrocytes seal focal injuries off from healthy brain tissue. It is these glial scars that are associated with epilepsy originating in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. However, the vast majority of human TBIs also present with diffuse brain injury caused by acceleration-deceleration forces leading to tissue shearing. The resulting diffuse tissue damage may be intrinsically different from focal lesions that would trigger glial scar formation. Here, we used mice of both sexes in a model of repetitive mild/concussive closed-head TBI, which only induced diffuse injury, to test the hypothesis that astrocytes respond uniquely to diffuse TBI and that diffuse TBI is sufficient to cause PTE. Astrocytes did not form scars and class...

Source: Epilepsy Currents - June 19, 2019 Category: Neurology Tags: Epilepsy Curr Source Type: research