Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression of regulator of calcineurin 1 (RCAN1) and calcineurin A (CaNA) in brain tissue of temporal lobe (TLE) epilepsy patients and pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-induced rat model. Methods Cortical samples from 18 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy were collected as epilepsy group and cortical samples from 11 patients with brain trauma were used as control group. 30 SD rats were randomly divided into model control group (MC) and PTZ group. The expression of RCAN1 and CaNA in human brain cortex, rat cortex and rat hippocampus were detected by Western blot and Immunohistochemistry assay. The location analysis of RCAN1 was detected by immunofluorescence. Moreover, co-immunoprecipitation was used to test whether there was an interaction between RCAN1 and CaNA. Results RCAN1 mainly located in neuronal cytomembrane. The expression of RCAN1 was down-regulated and expression of CaNA was up-regulated both in the epileptic patients and epileptic rats (P<0.01). RCAN1 interacted with CaNA. Conclusions Decreased expression of RCAN1 and increased expression of CaNA indicate that RCAN1 may be involved in the epileptogenesis by regulating CaNA.

Key words: regulators of calcineurin 1, calcineurin A, temporal lobe epilepsy, phosphorylation