[The pathogenesis of psychomotor epilepsy (a histochemical study of a penicillin epileptic focus in the rat hippocampus)]

Abstract

By the aid of histochemical methods the authors sutdied the activity and distribution of acetylcholinesterase, monoamineoxidase, glutamatedehydrogynase and gammaaminobutyric acid -- transferase in the dorsal hypocampus of rats. It was shown that the activity of all the studied enzymes are significantly changed following 0.5 and 1.5 hours and are restituted following 48 hours after the formation of a pathological focus. It is concluded that a drop in the activity of glutamatedehydrogenase and gammaaminobutyric acid may be directed toward an accumulation of gammaaminobutyric acid in the epileptogenic focus and an inhibition of its activity. A drop in the histochemical reaction to acetylcholinesterase may indicate a decrease in the functions of the cholinergic systems with an active epileptogenic focus in the hypocampus.