Hunter N, Houston F
Institute for Animal Health, Neuropathogenesis Unit, Edinburgh, UK.
Dev Biol (Basel). 2002;108:93-8.
We have shown that it is possible to transmit bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE) to a sheep by transfusion with whole blood taken from another sheep during the pre-clinical phase of an experimental BSE infection when the donor animal appears healthy. BSE and new variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans are caused by the same infectious agent and the sheep-BSE experimental model has similar pathogenesis, with involvement of the lymphoreticular system, to that of human vCJD. Although we have had only one case of positive transmission of BSE out of a total of 21 transfusions, our studies remain incomplete and further cases could occur. Our studies, however, reinforce the possibility that whole blood donated by pre-clinical vCJD-infected humans may represent a risk of spreading vCJD infection among the human population of the U.K.
我们已经证明，在实验性牛海绵状脑病（BSE）感染的临床前期，当供体动物看起来健康时，通过输注取自另一头绵羊的全血，有可能将BSE传播给一只绵羊。人类的BSE和新型变异型克雅氏病（vCJD）由同一种传染因子引起，绵羊-BSE实验模型具有与人类vCJD相似的发病机制，累及淋巴网状系统。尽管在总共21次输血中我们仅有1例BSE阳性传播病例，但我们的研究仍不完整，可能会出现更多病例。然而，我们的研究进一步证实了这样一种可能性，即临床前期vCJD感染的人类捐献的全血可能会在英国人群中传播vCJD感染。
