Scrapie-like Antigen(s) in Ageing Tissues

Abstract

SOME of the morphological changes in the brain which are found both in the light and electron microscopes in the relatively young mouse or rat with scrapie are also present in the normal animal in old age¹. These include enlargement and increased aurophilia of astroglia, presence of amyloid bodies, occurrence of closely orientated tubules within axis cylinders, and the occurrence of intranuclear inclusion bodies². Recently, too, plaques resembling those found in senile brains have been reported in the scrapie mouse (H. Fraser and M. Bruce, demonstration at the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland, July 1972). It would appear that the disease process has brought forward in time many of the features normally found in old age. Similar ageing changes have not, however, been reported in other organs, perhaps because no study has been specifically directed towards them.