No abstract

Extracellular levels of aspartate (ASP), glutamate (GLU), serine (SER), asparagine (ASN), glycine (GLY), threonine (THR), arginine (ARG), alanine (ALA), taurine (TAU), tyrosine (TYR), phenylalanine (PHE), isoleucine (ILEU), and leucine (LEU) were monitored by using intracerebral microdialysis in seven patients with medically intractable epilepsy, undergoing epilepsy surgery. In association with focal seizures, dramatic increases of the extracellular ASP, GLU, GLY, and SER concentrations were observed. The other amino acids analyzed, including TAU, showed small changes. The results support the hypothesis that ASP, GLU, GLY, and possibly SER, play an important role in the mechanism of seizure activity and seizure-related brain damage in the human epileptic focus.

Objectives-The aim of the study was to analyse whether any job titles, industrial codes, and certain occupational exposures were associated with an increased risk of glioma. Methods-A population based case-control study of incident primary brain tumours in adults was carried out in Uppsala, Sweden in the period 1987-90. The study included 192 cases of glioma and 192 matched controls. It also included cases with other tumours of the central nervous system with matched controls. Information from all 343 controls was used in this study. Information was collected by means of a questionnaire that was sent to all subjects. An occupational hygienist reviewed the questionnaires for self reported exposures to substances and assessed whether these reported exposures were plausible or not in the corresponding occupation. Results-The K coefficient for those classified by the two methods ranged between 0-46 and 0*88, and they were almost the same for cases and controls. For men exposed to solvents a relative risk (RR) of 2-6 (95% CI 1-3 to 5.2) was found. For men exposed to pesticides the RR was 1*8 (95% CI 0 6 to 5 1), and for plastic materials the RR was 3-6 (95% CI 1 0 to 12-4). For men employed in forestry and logging the RR was 2-2 (95% CI 0-9 to 5.3) and in basic metal industries 2-0 (95% CI 1-0 to 4.0). Conclusion-An increased risk of glioma was associated with use of solvents, pesticides, and plastic materials but this should be interpreted with some caution.

No abstract

Distribution of the enzyme monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) and the peripheral benzodiazepine binding site (omega 3 site) was studied by quantitative autoradiography using [3H]L-deprenyl and [3H]PK 11195, two tentative glial markers, as ligands. Sclerotic hippocampus from seven patients who had had anterotemporal lobe resection because of intractable complex partial epilepsy were investigated and compared with postmortem hippocampus from three nonepileptic controls. A significantly higher degree of L-deprenyl and PK 11195 binding was observed in the epileptic cases. The increased binding of both ligands correlated to extent of neuronal loss, but only PK 11195 showed correlation to degree of gliosis. We concluded that both ligands could provide useful markers for quantitating the degree of gliosis in pathologic states such as epilepsy. They may be applicable in future in vivo studies with positron emission tomography (PET).