Different levels of MT-I/II between patients with MTLE with or without seizure generalization: does hippocampal MT-I/II affects seizure spread, or does seizure spread promotes differential expression of MT-I/II?

in the central nervous system, zinc is released along with glutamate during neurotransmission and, in excess, can promote neuronal death. experimental studies have shown that metallothioneins i/ii (mt-i/ii), which chelate free zinc, can affect seizures and reduce neuronal death after status epilepticus. our aim was to evaluate the expression of mt-i/ii in the hippocampus of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (tle). hippocampi from patients with pharmacoresistant mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mtle) were evaluated for expression of mt-i/ii and for neuronal, astroglial, and microglial populations. compared to control cases, mtle group displayed widespread increase in mt-i/ii expression, astrogliosis and reduced neuronal population. mt-i/ii levels did not correlate with any clinical variables, but patients with secondary generalized seizures (sgs) had less mt-i/ii than patients without sgs. in conclusion, mt-i/ii expression was increased in hippocampi from mtle patients and our data suggest that it may be associated with different seizure spread patterns.