NR ABDE
AU Beck,E.
TI Lesions akin to transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in the brains of rats inoculated with immature cerebellum. Their significance in the aetiology of these diseases.
QU Acta Neuropathologica 1988; 76(3): 295-305
PT journal article
AB Fourteen BD IX rats were inoculated intracerebrally with a homogenate prepared from the immature cerebellar cortex of 10-day-old rats, when synaptogenesis is at its peak in this species. Eight controls were inoculated with mature cerebellar cortex. Transient ultrastructural changes were observed between 2 and 23 weeks' incubation in those animals which had received an inoculum of immature cerebellum. These changes pointed to a re-activation of embryonic or neo-natal growth mechanisms and were identical to those occurring in kuru-inoculated spider monkeys. With longer incubation histopathological lesions such as intracytoplasmic vacuolation, chromatolysis and neuronophagia appeared in neurons of the brain stem reticular formation. Such features are common in all the spongiform encephalopathies. All controls were negative. It is suggested that the transmissible agent in these diseases might be the factor which influences the various stages of normal neuronal maturation. A hypothesis is developed which would reconcile the "infectious" character of these diseases with a genetic factor and explain the "unconventional" behaviour of the agent as well as the mode of its transmission.
IN Homogenate der Kleinhirnrinden 10 Tage alter Ratten wurden 14 BD IX - Ratten in die Gehirne gespritzt. Zur Kontrolle geschah das gleiche mit den Kleinhirnrinden von 8 ausgewachsenen Ratten. Nach 2-23 Wochen wurden nur bei den Empfängern des jungen, noch in der Synaptogenese befindlichen Kleinhirnmaterials vorübergehende ultrastrukturelle Veränderungen beobachtet, die auf eine Reaktivierung embryonaler oder für neugeborene Ratten typischer Mechanismen schließen ließen und die auch schon bei mit Kuru infizierten Klammeraffen beobachtet worden waren. Nach längeren Inkubationszeiten entstanden widerum nur nur bei den Empfängern des jungen Kleinhirnmaterials intracytoplasmatische Vakuolen und die Chromosomen zerfielen im Hirnstamm wie bei allen spongiformen Encephalopathien.
MH Animal; Brain/microbiology/pathology/ultrastructure; Brain Diseases/etiology/pathology/*transmission; Female; Male; Pilot Projects; Prions/isolation & purification; Rats
AD Department of Neuropathology, Institute of Psychiatry, London, Great Britain.
SP englisch
PO Westdeutschland