title: Cerebral pathology in immunodeficient gnotobiotic laboratory mice.
abstract: Gnotobiotic autoimmunity prone, antigen presentation, T lymphocyte receptor gene knockout mice show cerebral pathology in the form of meningitis, venous blood statis with subarachnoid hemorrhages and massive hemosiderin deposits. A more or less severe hydrocephalus was present in all animals examined. In all cases except the CD 1(-/-) animals, the pineal gland was considerably reduced in mass. Only in the latter strain was a strong pineal hypertrophy in the form of a benign tumor present in ca. 50% of the animals. A possible sequence of events leading to hydrocephalus is discussed. Endogenous vertically transmitted facultative pathogens, active in the immunocompromised animals, probably play a primary etiological role. The results show that caution is needed in planning immunobiological studies on the B10.PL and B10.PL-derived mice, and possibly other strains not examined for possible neuropathological changes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Developmental Biology, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, Kopernika 7, 31-034 Kraków, Poland. mbsura@cyf-kr.edu.pl
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sura
authors.forename: Zbigniew
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Srebro
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology*; D005856:Germ-Free Life; D006849:Hydrocephalus / Q000473:pathology; D008581:Meningitis / Q000473:pathology; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D016513:Mice, SCID; D010841:Pia Mater / Q000473:pathology