Alterations of L-type voltage dependent calcium channel alpha 1 subunit in the hippocampal CA3 region during and after pilocarpine-induced epilepsy

Voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCC) have been shown to regulate neuronal excitability and their antagonists have been used clinically for the control of seizures. While functional studies of VDCC in epileptogenesis in the CA1 area of hippocampus or the dentate gyrus have been done, few studies were carried out in the CA3 area. Given the bursting characteristics of the CA3 neurons, we speculated that VDCC in the CA3 area might play an important role in the epileptogenesis. In the present study in the mouse pilocarpine model of temporal lobe epilepsy, we investigated the alterations of alpha 1 subunits of L-type VDCC in the CA3 area of the hippocampus at different stages of epileptogenesis, i.e., acute stage from 10 min to 1 day during and after pilocapine-induced status epilepticus (SE), latent period at 1 week, and chronic stage with spontaneous recurrent seizures at 2 months after SE. We found that an immediate redistribution of alpha 1 subunits in the CA3 area occurred during SE which might be involved in the seizure occurrence indicated by the Racine score record. Alterations of alpha 1 subunits were also demonstrated in the latent period and chronic stage, which might be related to the epileptogenesis and occurrence of epilepsy. Cav1.3, but not Cav1.2, was expressed in reactive astrocytes of the CA3 area, indicating the involvement of Cav1.3 in the modulation of astrocytic Ca2+ homeostasis during epileptogenesis.