Background: Previous research in animal seizure models indicates that the pleiotropic cytokine TNF is an important effector/mediator of neuroinflammation and cell death. Recently, it has been demonstrated that TNF downregulates Klotho (KL) through the nuclear factor kappa B (NFkB) system in animal models of chronic kidney disease and colitis. KL function in the brain is unclear, although Klotho knockout (Kl-/-) mice exhibit neural degeneration and a reduction of hippocampal synapses. Our aim was to verify if the triad KL-NFKB1-TNF is also dysregulated in temporal lobe epilepsy associated with hippocampal sclerosis (TLE(HS)) patients.
Findings: We evaluated TNF, NFKB1 and KL relative mRNA expression levels by reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) in resected hippocampal tissue samples from 14 TLE(HS) patients and compared them to five post mortem controls. Four reference genes were used: GAPDH, HPRT1, ENO2 and TBP. We found that TNF expression was dramatically upregulated in TLE(HS) patients (P <0.005). NFKB1 expression was also increased (P <0.03) while KL was significantly downregulated (P <0.03) in TLE(HS) patients. Hippocampal KL expression had an inverse correlation with NFKB1 and TNF.
Conclusions: Our data suggest that, similar to other inflammatory diseases, TNF downregulates KL through NFkB in TLE(HS) patients. The remarkable TNF upregulation in patients is a strong indication of hippocampal chronic inflammation. Our finding of hippocampal KL downregulation has wide implications not only for TLE(HS) but also for other neuronal disorders related to neurodegeneration associated with inflammation.