Correlative light and electron microscopy studies of PrP localisation in 87V scrapie.

The transmissible neurodegenerative diseases, of which scrapie is the archetype, are caused by unconventional infectious agents. Prion protein (PrP), a widespread host coded, cell surface sialoglycoprotein, is thought to be an essential or, controversially, sole component of these agents. During infection, disease specific accumulations of PrP may be observed in immunostained brain sections of mice infected with the 87V scrapie strain as amyloid plaques or as diffuse or granular foci within the neuropil. Using serial light and electron microscopical preparations we determined immunocytochemically that infection specific PrP is present in amyloid fibrils, and accumulates on the plasmalemma of neurites at the periphery of plaques and in the neuropil, irrespective of the morphological form of PrP accumulation when viewed by light microscopy. In some brain areas with dense granular PrP expression complete disruption of neuropil with loss of neurites was associated with fibrils lying free in expanded extracellular space. These results suggest that normal PrP may be converted to its pathological form at the neuronal plasmalemma or in the extracellular space and, furthermore, that amyloid fibrils are formed following the accumulation and aggregation of subunit proteins at these sites.