Transgenic Mouse Bioassay: Evidence That Rabbits Are Susceptible to a Variety of Prion Isolates
Fig 3
Brain lesion and PrPd deposit distribution of the first passage of several prion strains in TgRab mice.
Brain lesion profiles and PrPd deposition profiles represent the mean semi-quantitative scoring (0–4, vertical axis) of the spongiform lesions (black) and the immunohistochemical labelling of PrPd deposits (red) against 14 brain regions (Pfc: piriform cortex, H: hippocampus, Oc: occipital cortex, Tc: temporal cortex, Pc: parietal cortex, Fc: frontal cortex, S: striatum, T: thalamus, HT: hypothalamus, M: mesencephalon, Mob: medulla oblongata, Cm: cerebellar nuclei, Cv: cerebellar vermis, Cc: cerebellar cortex). Note that classical BSE-originating strains (BSE-C and Sheep BSE) generate very similar shaped brain profiles with low scores in the hypothalamus and strong involvement of the brain stem, clearly distinguishable from BSE-L (which maintains its affinity towards cortices as seen in cattle field cases). Scrapie derived strain show a brain profile with cortical and hypothalamic tropisms. The de novo NZW strain shows a distinct tropism for the diencephalon (particularly hypothalamus) and brainstem while sparing the cortices.