Abstracts

Rationale: Cerebral hemiatrophy or Dyke-Davinoff-Masson syndrome is characterized by seizures, facial asymmetry, contralateral hemiplegia or hemiparesis, and mental retardation. Although radiological findings of this syndrome are well known, studies about aminoacids and cellular damage have not been considered in this cerebral hemiatrophy syndrome. Methods: Surgical specimen from a patient with chronic pharmaco-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy was examined. The epileptic region was localized to the right temporal lobe, and an extensive surgical removal of the temporal lobe plus amygdala (A) and hippocampus (HP) was performed. The surgical specimens were obtained and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -75C for biochemical studies. The surgical specimens for histopathological evaluation were immersed and fixed in freshly prepared 1% paraformaldehyde. Results: In this study, the levels of neurotransmitters were highest in the hippocampus compared to the temporal neocortex (T1, T2 and T3). In amygdala, only GABA was found whereas other aminoacids were absent. Positive immunoreactivities with nestin and vimentin were observed in all brain regions studied.Conclusions: This patient’s syndrome should be considered as a post-infectious event which caused hemiparesis and, later recurrent seizures. Higher expression of nestin has been observed in proliferative endothelial cells. The expression in astrocytes may mainly reflect an early response of these cells to injury. Nestin may play a role in protecting the brain from injury. It has been proposed that re-expression of embryonic genes by mature glial cells is associated with morphological plasticity.