Publications by authors named "H F Konopka"

Objective: Depressive disorders are common among about 50% of the patients with drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). The underlying etiology remains elusive, but hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activation due to changes in glucocorticoid receptor (GR) protein expression could play an important role. Therefore, we set out to investigate expression of the GR in the hippocampus, an important brain region for HPA axis feedback, of patients with drug-resistant TLE, with and without comorbid depression.

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Purpose: Changes in calbindin (CB) expression have been reported in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with controversial implications on hippocampal functions. The aim of this study was to determine the CB immunoreactivity in hippocampal dentate gyrus of patients who underwent epilepsy surgery for drug-resistant TLE with and without comorbid depression and/or memory deficits.

Methods: Selected hippocampal samples from patients with TLE who underwent epilepsy surgery were included.

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Purpose: Granule cells pathology in dentate gyrus, have received considerable attention in terms of understanding the pathophysiology of temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis. The aim of this study was to determine the nestin (an intermediate filament protein expressed by newly formed cells), immunoreactivity (IR) in granular cells layers of hippocampal tissue extirpated during epilepsy surgical procedure, in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy.

Methods: Hippocampal sections of 16 patients with hippocampal sclerosis and drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy were processed using immunoperoxidase with antibody to nestin.

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Introduction: Status epilepticus increases the production of new neurons (hippocampal neurogenesis) and promotes aberrant migration. However chronic experimental models of epilepsy and studies performed in human epilepsy showed controversial results suggesting a reduction in hippocampal neurogenesis in late stages of the disease. Doublecortin (DCX) has been validated to determine alterations in the production of new neurons in the human hippocampus.

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Several studies have demonstrated a controversial involvement of NO in epileptogenesis. The aim of this study is to compare the NADPH diaphorase (NADPH-d) reactivity in the temporal cortex between surgical specimens of patients with intractable epilepsy and hippocampal sclerosis and autopsy controls. Brain samples of patients and postmortem controls were stained with the NADPH-d technique.

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