FIG 3.
Limited influence of repeated cycles of freezing and thawing on the abundance and PMCA conversion capacity of dehydrated hamster PrPSc. (A and B) Western blot analysis (A) and quantification (B) of dehydrated brain homogenate from either uninfected hamsters (UN) or hamsters infected with hyper (HY) or drowsy (DY) before (0) or after 300 or 500 cycles of freezing and thawing (D.F.T.) in either unadsorbed or soil-adsorbed forms. (C and D) Western blot analysis (C) and quantification (D) of PMCA reactions seeded with dehydrated HY or DY before (0) and after 300 or 500 cycles of freezing and thawing in either unadsorbed or soil-adsorbed forms. The abundance and amplification of treated samples (D.F.T. 300 and 500) were normalized to those of the untreated control (D.F.T. 0). All samples were digested with proteinase K (PK) except uninfected samples (UN and UN&SCL). Error bars represent standard errors of the means. Asterisks indicate significant differences between treated and untreated samples (n = 6; P value of <0.01).