Detection of aberrant hippocampal mossy fiber connections: Ex vivo mesoscale diffusion MRI and microtractography with histological validation in a patient with uncontrolled temporal lobe epilepsy.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the neurobiology and functional connectivity of hippocampal structures is essential for improving the treatment of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. At the macroscale, in vivo MRI often reveals hippocampal atrophy and decreased fractional anisotropy, whereas at the microscopic scale, there frequently is evidence of neuronal loss and gliosis. Mossy fiber sprouting in the dentate gyrus (DG), with evidence of glutamatergic synapses in the stratum moleculare (SM) putatively originating from granule cell neurons, may also be observed. This aberrant connection between the DG and SM could produce a reverberant excitatory circuit. However, this hypothesis cannot easily be evaluated using macroscopic or microscopic techniques. We here demonstrate that the ex vivo mesoscopic MRI of surgic

SUBMITTER: Modo M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4718824 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature