Increased phase synchronization of spontaneous calcium oscillations in epileptic human versus normal rat astrocyte cultures.

Stochastic synchronization analysis is applied to intracellular calcium oscillations in astrocyte cultures prepared from epileptic human temporal lobe. The same methods are applied to astrocyte cultures prepared from normal rat hippocampus. Our results indicate that phase-repulsive coupling in epileptic human astrocyte cultures is stronger, leading to an increased synchronization in epileptic human compared to normal rat astrocyte cultures.