Immunohistochemical localization of extravasated serum albumin in the hippocampus of human subjects with partial and generalized epilepsies and epileptiform convulsions.

Human serum albumin-like immunoreactivity was detected by the peroxidase-antiperoxidase method in histological sections of the hippocampus from epileptic and control brains obtained on routine autopsies. In the hippocampi of epileptic patients immunoreactive astrocytes were found, the number of which was increasing with the severity of the manifest convulsions. The highest numbers of immunoreactive astrocytes were observed in those patients who died in status epilepticus. Hippocampi from control patients with no neurologic disorders in life were devoid of immunoreactive astrocytes. The results are discussed in terms of the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier during epileptic seizures.