Epilepsy-Induced Motility of Differentiated Neurons

Neuronal ectopia, such as granule cell dispersion (GCD) in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), has been assumed to result from a migration defect during development. Indeed, recent studies reported that aberrant migration of neonatal-generated dentate granule cells (GCs) increased the risk to develop epilepsy later in life. On the contrary, in the present study, we show that fully differentiated GCs become motile following the induction of epileptiform activity, resulting in GCD. Hippocampal slice cultures from transgenic mice expressing green fluorescent protein in differentiated, but not in newly generated GCs, were incubated with the glutamate receptor agonist kainate (KA), which induced GC burst activity and GCD. Using real-time microscopy, we observed that KA-exposed, differentiated GCs translocated their cell bodies and changed their dendritic organization. As found in human TLE, KA application was associated with decreased expression of the extracellular matrix protein Reelin, particularly in hilar interneurons. Together these findings suggest that KA-induced motility of differentiated GCs contributes to the development of GCD and establish slice cultures as a model to study neuronal changes induced by epileptiform activity.