This study examined whether thermoregulatory control is disrupted in a kainate-induced adult mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), using 7T MRI thermometry, EEG + implanted temperature probes, hypothalamic histology/transcriptomics, thyroid axis hormone levels, and MRI volumetrics in both epileptic mice and people with epilepsy (PWE).
Hippocampal temperature rose ~0.5–1.5°C before epilepsy onset and stayed elevated chronically; body temperature increased acutely in the 15 min before and after spontaneous seizures. Serum T3 and T4 fell ~50% without compensatory TSH rise, hypothalamic neuronal density dropped ~20% (p<.05), and MRI showed reduced hypothalamic volume in both epileptic mice and PWE.
- The epilepsy model is kainate-induced in mice, limiting direct generalizability to human drug-resistant TLE. - Human MRI findings are correlational only — no thyroid or histologic data from PWE are reported. - Causal direction between thermoregulatory dysfunction and seizure generation is not established.
Patients with drug-resistant TLE may have impaired thermoregulation and subclinical HPT axis dysfunction — clinicians should be alert to temperature dysregulation as a comorbidity and consider thyroid screening in this population. Environmental temperature management may be an underexplored lever for seizure risk reduction.
