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. 1991 Aug 15;88(16):6966–6970. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.16.6966

Transfer of genetic epilepsy by embryonic brain grafts in the chicken.

M A Teillet 1, R Naquet 1, G Le Gal La Salle 1, P Merat 1, B Schuler 1, N M Le Douarin 1
PMCID: PMC52214  PMID: 1871111

Abstract

In the Fayoumi chicken, a spontaneous recessive autosomal mutation (F.Epi) is responsible for high susceptibility to seizures that are especially inducible by intermittent light stimulation. Substitution of defined areas of the encephalic neuroepithelium in normal chicken embryos at 2 days of incubation by their counterparts from homozygous F.Epi embryos generates the epileptic phenotype in the chimeras. It was found that grafting primordia of both prosencephalon and mesencephalon of homozygous F.Epi birds is necessary and sufficient for transfer of the full disease. When grafted alone, the homozygous F.Epi prosencephalon, although showing the typical epileptic interictal electroencephalogram, does not allow the complete epileptic seizures to occur in the hosts. Grafts of mesencephalon and/or rhombencephalon modify neither the behavior nor the electroencephalographic pattern of the recipient chickens. Cooperation of forebrain and midbrain activities is therefore required to yield epileptic seizures in this model.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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