CASP9 and epilepsy: Accompanied by the release of cytochrome C into cytosol, caspase 9 increased obviously in refractory epilepsy neurons with the gain function of VDAC1 (117.6 ± 1.75%, P < 0.05) and decreased in refractory epilepsy neurons with the loss function of VDAC1 (84.7 ± 2.66%, P < 0.05) (Figure 2b).