NR AFBZ
AU Hanlon,J.; Monks,E.; Hughes,C.; Weavers,E.D.; Rogers,M.
TI Metallothionein in bovine spongiform encephalopathy
QU Journal of Comparative Pathology 2002 Nov; 127(4): 280-9
PT journal article
AB An increase in metallothionein I and II (MT I/II) mRNA concentrations has been reported in the central nervous system of scrapie-infected rodents. In this study we compared cattle with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), cattle affected by neurological disease other than BSE, and clinically healthy cattle in respect of MT I/II immunoreactivity in brainstem medullary tissue. Marked astrocytic MT I/II immunolabelling was seen in all BSE-affected animals, in contrast to clinically healthy cases, in which no such labelling was detected. In BSE, MT I/II immunoreactive astrocytes were confined specifically to areas of vacuolation or abnormal prion protein (PrP(BSE)) deposition, or both. MT I/II immunolabelling was also seen in a small number of animals with a neurological disease other than BSE. These findings complement previous studies by demonstrating increased levels of MT I/II in transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE)-infected brain tissue, indicating that MT I/II may play some as yet unidentified role in the response to TSE infection.
AD Department of Zoology and Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Sciences, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
SP englisch
PO England