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PrPSc in mammary glands of sheep affected by scrapie and mastitis

Nature Medicine volume 11, pages 1137–1138 (2005)Cite this article

To the editor:

Besides colonizing the central nervous system, the infectious agent of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, termed prion, is predominantly associated with follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) of lymphoid tissues1,2. Accordingly, PrPSc, a protease-resistant isoform of the host protein PrPC representing the main prion constituent, is often detectable in spleen, tonsils, Peyer patches and lymph nodes of infected hosts.

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Figure 1: Prion protein in inflamed mammary glands.
Figure 2: Mammary PrPSc localizes to macrophages and FDCs.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. DeMartini for discussions and B. Seifert for statistical analysis. This study was supported by grants of the European Union (Apopis), the Swiss National Foundation, the National Competence Center for Research on Neural Plasticity and Repair (to A.A.), Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sardegna 001/02 (to C.L.), US National Institutes of Health K08-AI01802 and the Foundation for Research at the Medical Faculty, University of Zürich (to C.J.S.) and the United States National Prion Research Program (to C.J.S. and A.A.).

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  1. Ciriaco Ligios, Christina J Sigurdson and Cinzia Santucciu: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sardegna, Sassari, I-07100, Italy

    Ciriaco Ligios, Cinzia Santucciu, Caterina Maestrale & Laura Madau

  2. Department of Pathology, UniversitätsSpital Zürich, Institute of Neuropathology, Zürich, CH-8091, Switzerland

    Christina J Sigurdson, Giuseppe Manco & Adriano Aguzzi

  3. Dipartimento di Patologia Animale, Igiene e Sanità Pubblica Veterinaria, Sez. di Microbiologia e Immunologia, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, I-20133, Italy

    Gabriella Carcassola

  4. Prion DGN Srl, Rho, I-20017, Italy

    Massimo Basagni

  5. Istituto Zootecnico Caseario della Sardegna, Olmedo, I-07040, Italy

    Maria Giovanna Cancedda

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  1. Ciriaco Ligios
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Ligios, C., Sigurdson, C., Santucciu, C. et al. PrPSc in mammary glands of sheep affected by scrapie and mastitis. Nat Med 11, 1137–1138 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1105-1137

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