Figure 4.
Regional distribution of PrPres and vacuolation in the brain of bovine PrP transgenic mice infected with BSE-L or BSE agents. A–D, Histoblots of representative coronal sections at the level of the hippocampus are shown. Note the different distribution and nature of PrP deposits between BSE (A) and BSE-L [B, Italian (It); C, French (Fr); D, French second passage]. E, F, Lesion profiles in the brain of tgBov mice infected with the BSE-L (E, open circles, Italian; filled circles, French isolates) or BSE (F, open circles, cattle BSE; open squares, goat BSE) agent. The intensity of vacuolation was scored as means ± SEM in standard gray (G1–G9) and white (W1–W3) matter areas (see Materials and Methods). The BSE-L agent induced a severe vacuolation in several regions of the gray matter compared with BSE.