Seizure disorders affect a significant percentage of the population, and researchers worldwide continue to work toward a better understanding of what initiates, propagates, and results from aberrant and excessive neuronal excitation. During the past two decades, one aspect of this research effort has been to describe the effects of seizure activity upon neuronal gene expression, with hopes of identifying the molecular mechanisms that underlie subsequent changes in cell function and survival. Here we review this body of work from the perspective of how these gene profiling efforts have evolved, starting with one-by-one analyses of specific gene targets to the more recent use of DNA microarrays to survey literally thousands of genes simultaneously. With regard to the latter, we present some of our own work that suggests that molecular mechanisms contributing to normal brain development are reiterated during seizure-induced network reorganization.
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