Abstract
The occurrence of the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), raises the important question of the sources of human contamination. The possibility that sheep may have been fed with BSE-contaminated foodstuff raises the serious concern that BSE may now be present in sheep without being distinguishable from scrapie. Sensitive models are urgently needed given the dramatic consequences of such a possible contamination on animal and human health. We inoculated transgenic mice expressing the ovine PrP gene with a brain homogenate from sheep experimentally infected with BSE. We found numerous typical florid plaques in their brains. Such florid plaques are a feature of vCJD in humans and experimental BSE infection in macaques. Our observation represents the first description, after a primary infection, of this hallmark in a transgenic mouse model. Moreover, these mice appear to be a promising tool in the search for BSE in sheep.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 952-956 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | EMBO Reports |
Volume | 2 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2001 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biochemistry
- Molecular Biology
- Genetics