Membrane lamellation in brain unrelated to spongiform encephalopathy.
When sections from the cerebral cortex of 5 normal rats and 2 normal monkeys were stained with saturated aqueous uranyl acetate (without block staining) and examined with the electron microscope, all 7 animal brains showed abundant membrane lamellation between apposed neuronal and neuroglial processes. Such lamellations match those described by Beck et al. (1982) in the brains of kuru-inoculated monkeys in their early stages before spongiform encephalopathy has become established. The present observations question their contention that membrane lamellation is a real phenomenon and a prelude to spongiform change in kuru encephalopathy in the monkey.
D000818:Animals; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D002143:Callitrichinae; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D014617:Vacuoles / Q000648:ultrastructure