Lack of effect of thymus and spleen on the incubation period of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in mice.
Genetically athymic and asplenic (Lasat), athymic (Nude), asplenic (Dh) or normal littermate (Hetero) mice with a BALB/c genetic background were injected either intracerebrally or intraperitoneally with a 1% or 10% homogenate of mouse brains infected with the Fukuoka 1 strain of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) agent. As there were no significant differences in incubation periods among the five groups (Lasat, Nude, Dh, Hetero and BALB/c) inoculated with the same dilution, via the same route, it was concluded that cell-mediated immunity dependent on the thymus plays no significant role in host defence against the CJD agent, and the spleen, a critical site of agent replication, is apparently not an obligatory source from which infection spreads to the central nervous system.
D000818:Animals; D007562:Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D013154:Spleen / Q000502:physiology*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors