Lack of linkage between idiopathic generalized epilepsies and the gene encoding the neural cell adhesion molecule

Hereditary factors play a major role in the etiology of idiopathic generalized epilepsies (IGEs). The frequent neuropathological occurrence of microdysgeneses in the brain of IGE patients implies that genes regulating neural migration and cell adhesion might be involved in epileptogenesis of age-related generalized seizures. Our present linkage study tested the hypothesis that DNA sequence variants associated with the gene encoding the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) confer genetic susceptibility to IGE traits in 57 families ascertained through patients with either juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, juvenile or childhood absence epilepsy. Our consistently negative results provide evidence against a common major effect of NCAM gene variants to the expression of IGEs with age-related onset from childhood to adolescence.