Alicia Raquel Rossi, Bruno Buchholz, Ricardo J. Gelpi, Amalia Merelli, Carlos Oscar Cañellas, Alberto Javier Ramos, Alberto Lazarowski, Jerónimo Auzmendi, Paula Men, Jazmín Kelly, Marcela Zubillaga, and Jimena Salguero
Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is the major cause of death in those patients suffering from refractory epilepsy (RE), with a 24-fold higher risk relative to the normal population. SUDEP risk increases with seizure frequency and/or seizure-duration as in RE and Status Epilepticus (SE). P-glycoprotein (P-gp), the product of the multidrug resistant ABCB1-MDR-1 gene, is a detoxifying pump that extrudes drugs out of the cells and can confer pharmacoresistance to the expressing cells. Neurons and cardiomyocytes normally do not express P-gp, however, it is overexpressed in the brain of patients or in experimental models of RE and SE. P-gp was also detected after brain or cardiac hypoxia. We have previously demonstrated that repetitive pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizures increase P-gp expression in the brain, which is associated with membrane depolarization in the hippocampus, and in the heart, which is associated with fatal SE. SE can produce hypoxic-ischemic altered cardiac rhythm (HIACR) and severe arrhythmias, and both are related with SUDEP. Here, we investigate whether SE induces the expression of hypoxia-inducible transcription factor (HIF)-1α and P-gp in cardiomyocytes, which is associated with altered heart rhythm, and if these changes are related with the spontaneous death rate. SE was induced in Wistar rats once a week for 3 weeks, by lithium-pilocarpine-paradigm. Electrocardiograms, HIF-1α, and P-gp expression in cardiomyocytes, were evaluated in basal conditions and 72 h after SE. All spontaneous deaths occurred 48 h after each SE was registered. We observed that repeated SE induced HIF-1α and P-gp expression in cardiomyocytes, electrocardiographic (ECG) changes, and a high rate of spontaneous death. Our results suggest that the highly accumulated burden of convulsive stress results in a hypoxic heart insult, where P-gp expression may play a depolarizing role in cardiomyocyte membranes and in the development of the ECG changes, such as QT interval prolongation, that could be related with SUDEP. We postulate that this mechanism could explain, in part, the higher SUDEP risk in patients with RE or SE. Fil: Auzmendi, Jerónimo Andrés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia "Prof. Eduardo de Robertis". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia; Argentina Fil: Buchholz, Bruno. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiopatología Cardiovascular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Salguero, Jimena. Laboratorio de Radioisotopos; Argentina Fil: Cañellas, Carlos. Laboratorio Tecnonuclear S.a.; Argentina Fil: Kelly, Jazmín. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiopatología Cardiovascular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Men, Paula. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Bioquímica Clínica; Argentina Fil: Zubillaga, Marcela Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Física. Laboratorio de Radioisótopos; Argentina Fil: Rossi, Alicia Raquel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia "Prof. Eduardo de Robertis". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia; Argentina Fil: Merelli, Amalia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Bioquímica Clínica; Argentina Fil: Gelpi, Ricardo Jorge. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiopatología Cardiovascular; Argentina Fil: Ramos, Alberto Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia "Prof. Eduardo de Robertis". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia; Argentina Fil: Lazarowski, Alberto. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Bioquímica Clínica; Argentina