Vol. 54 No. 3 (1994), Articles
Vol. 54 No. 3 (1994)

Further ultrastructural studies of lesions produced in the optic nerve by Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha): a comparison with experimental Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Articles
Published 1994-09-30
Paweł Liberski
Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA; , Department of Oncology, Medical Academy Łódź, 4 Paderewski St., 93-509 Łódź;
Richard Yanagihara
Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA;
Vivek Nerurkar
Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA;
D. Gajdusek
Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA;

Abstract

We report here that intraocular injection of recombinant TNF-alpha produces lesions in the optic nerve indistinguishable from those reported for the panencephalopathic type of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). The lesions were patchy and confined to the injected optic nerve. Axons show variable features of degenerations. Numerous vacuoles distended the myelin sheath. Hypetrophic astrocytes were numerous and many active macrophages containing digested myelin debris and lyre-like paracrystalline bodies. At high power, myelinated axons were observed as enveloped by astrocytic processes; formation of labyrinth-like network of such processes around damaged axons were observed. In conclusions, lesions produced by TNF-alpha mimic those of the panencephalopathic type of CJD, in direct support of our previous ultrastructural, immunohistochemical and molecular data on TNF-alpha involvement in CJD pathogenesis.
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Copyright (c) 1994 Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis

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