title: Proliferating cell nuclear antigen immunohistochemistry in astrocytes in experimental Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and in human kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome.
abstract: We have used immunohistochemical techniques and a monoclonal antibody against proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) to investigate the proliferative activity of glial cells in mice with experimental Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), and in human cases of CJD, kuru and Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSS). Only a small proportion of hypertrophic astrocytes showed PCNA immunoreactivity (labelling index, LI: 0-4.5%). PCNA-specific immunostaining was confined entirely to cell nuclei. During the early stages of illness, with minimal CJD pathology, PCNA-immunopositive nuclei were occasionally observed in the subependymal zone of experimentally infected mice. From 18 weeks postinoculation, PCNA-immunopositive astrocytes were most frequently found in the corpus callosum and cerebellar white matter; regions which characteristically exhibit robust vacuolation. No other cells, particularly no cells of microglial morphology, showed PCNA immunoreactivity. In human cases of kuru, CJD and GSS, no PCNA-immunopositive cells were detected despite the presence of numerous microglial cells and reactive hypertrophic astrocytes. These results indicate that only a limited proportion of astrocytes proliferate in the experimental models of subacute spongiform encephalopathies and that microglia are probably postmitotic cells.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Tumor Biology, Medical Academy Lodz, Poland.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Biernat
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Liberski
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Guiroy
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yanagihara
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Gajdusek
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D007562:Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D016098:Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker Disease / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007729:Kuru / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D051379:Mice; D017628:Microglia / Q000276:immunology*; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen