Analyses of the expressions of GFAP in the brain tissues of hamsters infected with various amounts of scrapie strain 263K at terminal stage

Abstract

To investigate whether gliosis in the brain tissues of the hamsters infected with various amounts of scrapie strain 263K is correlated with the inoculation doses or the incubation times. The total values of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in brains were evaluated by Western Blots and the GFAP-stained cells were detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The characteristics of GFAP distributions among various groups were defined by quantitive and statistic analyses. Compared with the brain tissues of normal hamsters, remarkably higher total GFAP levels and more GFAP-stained cells were observed in the brain tissues of infected ones, howbeit, no significant difference was addressed among the infected groups. Inoculations of various amounts of scrapie strain 263K into experimental hamsters intracerebrally induced the similar patterns of gliosis in the brains at the clinically terminal stage, regardless of infectious doses and incubation times.