Department of Pathology and Host Susceptibility, Veterinary Laboratories Agency, New Haw, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2011 May 12;6(5):e19737. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0019737.
Prions are largely contained within the nervous and lymphoid tissue of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) infected animals. However, following advances in diagnostic sensitivity, PrP(Sc), a marker for prion disease, can now be located in a wide range of viscera and body fluids including muscle, saliva, blood, urine and milk, raising concerns that exposure to these materials could contribute to the spread of disease in humans and animals. Previously we demonstrated low levels of infectivity in the liver of sheep experimentally challenged with bovine spongiform encephalopathy. In this study we show that PrP(Sc) accumulated in the liver of 89% of sheep naturally infected with scrapie and 100% of sheep challenged with BSE, at both clinical and preclinical stages of the disease. PrP(Sc) was demonstrated in the absence of obvious inflammatory foci and was restricted to isolated resident cells, most likely Kupffer cells.
朊病毒主要存在于传染性海绵状脑病（TSE）感染动物的神经和淋巴组织中。然而，随着诊断敏感性的提高，朊病毒疾病的标志物 PrP(Sc) 现在可以在包括肌肉、唾液、血液、尿液和牛奶在内的广泛内脏和体液中定位，这引起了人们的关注，即接触这些材料可能会导致疾病在人类和动物中的传播。以前，我们证明了在牛海绵状脑病实验性挑战的绵羊肝脏中存在低水平的感染性。在这项研究中，我们表明，89%的天然感染羊瘙痒病的绵羊和 100%的用 BSE 挑战的绵羊的肝脏中积累了 PrP(Sc)，无论是在疾病的临床前还是临床阶段。在没有明显炎症灶的情况下证明了 PrP(Sc)的存在，并且局限于孤立的常驻细胞，很可能是枯否细胞。
