Relationship between the microcirculation and the pathological changes in the sporadic and variant forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)

Richard A. Armstrong*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Published conference outputChapter

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with the influence of the brain microcirculation on the development of the pathological changes in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Hence, the spatial correlations between the vacuolation, prion protein (PrP) deposits, and the blood vessel profiles were studied in immunolabelled sections of the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum in two subtypes of CJD, viz., sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) and variant CJD (vCJD). In sCJD, both the vacuolation and the 'synaptictype' PrP deposits were spatially correlated with the blood vessels; the PrP deposits being the more strongly correlated than the vacuoles. In vCJD, there were no significant spatial correlations between either the vacuolation or the diffuse-type of PrP deposit and the microvessels. By contrast, a consistent pattern of spatial correlation was observed in gyri of the cerebral cortex between the florid PrP deposits and blood vessels. In both sCJD and vCJD, the frequency of positive spatial correlations was similar in the different gyri of the cerebral cortex and in the upper compared with the lower laminae. In conclusion, the microcirculation appears to be more significantly involved in determining the pathological changes in sCJD than in vCJD. The spatial correlations of the florid PrP deposits in vCJD and the synaptic deposits in sCJD and the blood vessels may be attributable to factors associated with the microcirculation which enhance the aggregation of PrP molecules rather than representing a possible haematogenous spread of the disease.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMicrocirculation
Subtitle of host publicationFunction, Malfunction and Measurement
PublisherNova Science Publishers Inc
Pages79-94
Number of pages16
ISBN (Electronic)9781614703082
ISBN (Print)9781606927212
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2009

Keywords

  • Diffuse plaque
  • Florid plaque
  • Microcirculation
  • Prion protein (PrP) deposits
  • Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)
  • Vacuolation
  • Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)

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