Role of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease for safety of treatment with blood components: screening of lymphatic tissue is a potential tool for risk assessment.
BACKGROUND
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are neuropathological diseases caused by prions. Prions are infectious particles (PrPSc) which can induce bovine spongiform encephalopathy and most likely also the related infectious disease, variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). The exposure of humans to orally ingested BSE agent in contaminated meat products presumably led to the emergence of vCJD. In vCJD, prions can be detected immunohistochemically not only in neuronal tissue but also in lymphoreticular tissue. vCJD is of significance in transfusion medicine because of the hypothetical transmission of prions by blood products.


METHODS
An immunohistochemistry method was used to allow screening for vCJD in human lymphoreticular tissue.


RESULTS
PrPSc can be detected in the cerebrum and cerebellum of patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) and in the lymph nodes, tonsils, and spleen of vCJD patients. This method has the major advantage of working in fixed specimens which are routinely saved in departments of pathology and therefore allows screening of large numbers of archived human lymphoreticular tissues in different regional areas and from different time points. Scrapie-positive lymphoreticular sheep tissue reacts similarly to human tissue of vCJD affected patients and is available in sufficient amounts to be used as positive control in screening programs.


CONCLUSIONS
A method is provided which is a feasible tool for an epidemiological screening program to assess the prevalence of the assumed infectious agent of vCJD, PrPSc, in various populations.
Sachse
C
C
Department of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University, Sauerbruchstrasse/Diagnostikzentrum, 17487 Greifswald, Germany.
Groschup
M H
MH
Warzok
R
R
Greinacher
A
A
D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D016913:Blood Component Transfusion / Q000592:standards; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000473:pathology; D007562:Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology; D008221:Lymphoid Tissue / Q000473:pathology*; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D014066:Palatine Tonsil / Q000473:pathology; D018620:PrPSc Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000276:immunology; D015995:Prevalence; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012756:Sheep; D013154:Spleen / Q000473:pathology
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D018620:PrPSc Proteins