Abstract
The injection into the cerebrospinal fluid of cats of 52 to 208 gamma of copper in the form of an albumin complex or as cupric sulfate, was followed by small elevations in the content of metal in the neural tissues, but regularly and promptly produced persistent quadriplegia and conspicuous histologic changes. Smaller amounts of copper caused less, or no, neurologic manifestations or histologic alterations. The earliest lesions were essentially unaccompanied by inflammation and were initially characterized by hydropic swelling of the myelin sheaths. They progressed rapidly to focal necrosis of all parenchymal components with marked degeneration of myelin and axis cylinders in the peripheral margins of the spinal cord, brain stem, mid-brain, and cerebrum. These histologic changes did not occur in neural tissues incubated in vitro in solutions of the copper-albumin complex. They did not appear in animals injected intraventricularly with ferric sulfate or saccharated iron. Considered together, the findings make it clear that copper in concentrations comparable to those present in the neural tissues of patients with Wilson's disease has the property of profoundly altering neural function and causing conspicuous morphologic alterations.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (760.6 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Eden A., Green H. H. Micro-determination of copper in biological material. Biochem J. 1940 Sep;34(8-9):1202–1208. doi: 10.1042/bj0341202. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- LEE J. C., OLSZEWSKI J. Penetration of radioactive bovine albumin from cerebrospinal fluid into brain tissue. Neurology. 1960 Sep;10:814–822. doi: 10.1212/wnl.10.9.814. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- UZMAN L. L. Histochemical localization of copper with rubeanic acid. Lab Invest. 1956 May-Jun;5(3):299–305. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Vogel F. S. Nephrotoxic Properties of Copper under Experimental Conditions in Mice: With Special Reference to the Pathogenesis of the Renal Alterations in Wilson's Disease. Am J Pathol. 1960 Jun;36(6):699–711. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Vogel F. S. THE DEPOSITION OF EXOGENOUS COPPER UNDER EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS WITH OBSERVATIONS ON ITS NEUROTOXIC AND NEPHROTOXIC PROPERTIES IN RELATION TO WILSON'S DISEASE. J Exp Med. 1959 Oct 31;110(5):801–810. doi: 10.1084/jem.110.5.801. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]