Three-dimensional reconstruction of the pharyngeal tonsil innervation pattern in sheep.
The pharyngeal tonsil has recently been identified as a new participant in airborne contamination by the ovine scrapie agent. In the context of scrapie pathogenesis, we conducted a three-dimensional reconstruction of the innervation pattern in the lymphoid compartments of this tonsil. This model confirmed that very few nerve fibres penetrated the lymphoid follicles and suggested that the nerve fibre distribution in the interfollicular and subepithelial areas is more suitable with neuro-invasion through direct contact between these nerve fibres and prion-transporting cells prior to or after prion amplification in the germinal centre of the pharyngeal tonsil lymphoid follicles.
Department of Morphology and Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liege, Belgium. Electronic address: vtoppets@ulg.ac.be.
Vinciane
V
Toppets
Joelle
J
Piret
Annick
A
Gabriel
Luc
L
Grobet
Paul
P
Simoens
Wim
W
van den Broeck
Pieter
P
Cornillie
Nadine
N
Antoine
D000234:Adenoids / Q000294:innervation* / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D000818:Animals; D055032:Electron Microscope Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000648:ultrastructure; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D018620:PrPSc Proteins / Q000472:pathogenicity; D012608:Scrapie / Q000473:pathology; D012756:Sheep; D034561:Sheep, Domestic
D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein; D018620:PrPSc Proteins
AMIRA software; Glial fibrillar acidic protein; Lymphoid follicle