Presence of an acute phase response in sheep with clinical classical scrapie

Siv Meling,Kjetil Bårdsen,Martha J Ulvund

doi:10.1186/1746-6148-8-113

Siv Meling, Kjetil Bårdsen + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-6148-8-113

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Abstract

BackgroundWork with experimental scrapie in sheep has been performed on-site for many years including studies on PrPSc dissemination and histopathology of organs and tissues both at preclinical and clinical stages. In this work serum was sampled at regular intervals from lambs which were infected immediately after birth and from parallel healthy controls, and examined for acute phase proteins. In contrast to earlier experiments, which extensively studied PrPSc dissemination and histopathology in peripheral tissues and brain, this experiment is focusing on examination of serum for non-PrPSc markers that discriminates the two groups, and give insight into other on-going processes detectable in serum samples.ResultsThere was clear evidence of an acute phase response in sheep with clinical scrapie, both experimental and natural. All the three proteins, ceruloplasmin, haptoglobin and serum amyloid A, were increased at the clinical stage of scrapie.ConclusionThere was evidence of a systemic measurable acute phase response at the clinical terminal end-stage of classical scrapie.

Highlights

Work with experimental scrapie in sheep has been performed on-site for many years including studies on Scrapie Prion Protein (PrPSc) dissemination and histopathology of organs and tissues both at preclinical and clinical stages
The brain from all the animals in both groups were examined for PrPSc by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western Blot (WB), and only the animals in the scrapie group were positive
In this work, we describe increased levels of certain Acute Phase Protein (APP) in sheep with experimental and natural cases of clinical classical scrapie

Summary

Introduction

Work with experimental scrapie in sheep has been performed on-site for many years including studies on PrPSc dissemination and histopathology of organs and tissues both at preclinical and clinical stages. In contrast to earlier experiments, which extensively studied PrPSc dissemination and histopathology in peripheral tissues and brain, this experiment is focusing on examination of serum for non-PrPSc markers that discriminates the two groups, and give insight into other on-going processes detectable in serum samples. In the search for a non-PrPSc marker of prion diseases it is quite noticeable that many of the significant genes and proteins are linked to the activation of microglia in the brain, and the processes in and around the innate immune response including the acute phase response

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