Nature Neuroscience
4, 52 - 62 (2001)
doi:10.1038/82900
Dendritic but not somatic GABAergic inhibition is decreased in experimental epilepsyR. Cossart1, C. Dinocourt1, J. C. Hirsch1, A. Merchan-Perez2, J. De Felipe2, Y. Ben-Ari1, M. Esclapez1
& C. Bernard31
INMED, INSERM Unité 29, Avenue de Luminy, B.P. 13, 13 273 Marseille Cedex 09, France
2
Instituto Cajal, 37 Ave Dr Arce, 28002 Madrid, Spain
3
Present address: Division of Neuroscience, S700, Baylor College of Medicine, 1 Baylor Plaza, Houston, Texas 77030, USA
Correspondence should be addressed to Y. Ben-Ari ben-ari@inmed.univ-mrs.frImpaired inhibition is thought to be important in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), the most common form of epilepsy in adult patients. We report that, in experimental TLE, spontaneous GABAergic inhibition was increased in the soma but reduced in the dendrites of pyramidal neurons. The former resulted from the hyperactivity of somatic projecting interneurons, whereas the latter was probably due to the degeneration of a subpopulation of dendritic projecting interneurons. A deficit in dendritic inhibition could reduce seizure threshold, whereas enhanced somatic inhibition would prevent the continuous occurrence of epileptiform activity.
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