Over-expression of laminin correlates to recovery of vasogenic edema following status epilepticus

- Laminin expression was increased in the vasogenic edema lesions following SE.
- Laminin over-expression was not correlated with astroglial death.
- Laminin expression was reduced during recovery of vasogenic edema.
- Inhibition of vasogenic edema by BQ788 attenuated laminin over-expression.
- Laminin over-expression may play a role in recovery of vascular damage.

In the present study, we addressed the question of whether the up-regulation of laminin expression represents the astroglio-vascular responses to status epilepticus (SE) in the rat brain to better understand the role of vasogenic edema in epileptogenic insult. In the hippocampus, vasogenic edema was observed in the hippocampus 12 h after SE when astroglial degeneration was undetected. Vasogenic edema in the hippocampus was more severe in the CA1 region where astroglial loss was absent than in the dentate gyrus showing astroglial degeneration. In the piriform cortex (PC), vasogenic edema was accompanied by appearance of astroglial degeneration 12 h after SE. Laminin expression in the hippocampus and the PC was increased 3 days and 4 days after SE, respectively. Laminin expression was up-regulated in the hippocampus and the PC with concomitant reduction of SMI-71 (the endothelial barrier antigen) expression. Four weeks after SE, laminin expression was reduced in vessels showing strong SMI-71 expression within vasogenic edema lesion. Inhibition of SE-induced vasogenic edema formation by BQ788 effectively prevented laminin over-expression. Therefore, our findings indicate that laminin over-expression may be one of consequences from vasogenic edema rather than astroglial loss, and that laminin over-expression may promote migration of astrocytes to damaged or newly generated vessels to repair brain-blood barrier (BBB) disruption accompanied by the reconstruction of endothelial barrier.