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These researchers examined the role of blood-brain barrier (BBB) leakage in the epileptogenic process. In brain autopsy material from two patients who had died from status epilepticus and in temporal lobe specimens removed during surgery from six patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, they used intravascular tracers that normally do not cross the BBB. In all samples, they found evidence of tracer leakage through the BBB.
Paralleling the human studies, the investigators also studied BBB permeability in a rat model of hippocampal electrical stimulation-induced status epilepticus. In this model, rats are induced to develop status epilepticus, go through a latent period where no seizures occur, and then develop spontaneous seizures. Compared with…