Calponin-3 is an actin-interacting protein and is expressed in the brain. Our previous microarray scan has found an up-regulation of calponin-3 gene CNN3 in the temporal lobe of patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Here we investigated in epileptic patients the changes of brain and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) calponin-3 expressions, and assessed calponin-3 expression pattern in a rat model of pilocarpine-induced epilepsy. We showed that in the temporal neocortices of 30 patients with drug-resistant epilepsy, both mRNA and protein level of calponin-3 were significantly increased. In addition, the augmentation of CSF calponin-3 from 126 epileptic patients was closely correlated with disease duration. Moreover, in the cortices of temporal lobes of pilocarpine-treated rats, calponin-3 increased along with the time and maintained at significant high levels for up to 2 months, while the up-regulation of hippocampal calponin-3 only occurred at 24h and 1 week. The elevated calponin-3 suggests that deregulation of actin filament dynamics in axonal and dendritic outgrowth and synaptic rearrangement may contribute to pathophysiology of epilepsy.
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