Altered patterns of Reelin-promoter hypermethylation associate with granule cell dispersion in mesial temporal lobe epilepsies with hippocampal sclerosis

Hippocampal sclerosis (HS) is the most common lesion in chronic, intractable temporal lobe epilepsies (TLE) and characterized by segmental loss of pyramidal neurons in sector CA1, CA3 and CA4. Another histological hallmark includes granule cell dispersion (GCD), an architectural dysplasia of the dentate gyrus (DG) encoutered in approx. 50% of HS patients. The molecular pathology of both cell loss and architectural dysplasia remain poorly understood. A key protein known to control neuronal migration and axon growth in a variety of laminated brain regions including the hippocampus is Reelin. Previous studies have…