Lesions akin to transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in the brains of rats inoculated with immature cerebellum |
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Authors: | Elisabeth Beck |
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Affiliation: | (1) Department of Neuropathology, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, SE5 8AF London, UK |
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Abstract: | Summary 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.Preliminary results of this work were included in a paper read at the 28th meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neuropathologie und Neuroanatomie in October 1983 [3]. The work is dedicated to the memory of Herbert Butler (James) Parry 1912–1980 |
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Keywords: | Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy Scrapie Experimental kuru Neuronal vacuolation Re-activation of embryonic and neonatal growth mechanisms |
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