The Presence of Disease-Associated Prion Protein in Skeletal Muscle of Cattle Infected with Classical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of disease-associated prion protein (PrP^Sc) in the skeletal muscle of cattle infected with classical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (C-BSE). The study was carried out systematically in 12 different muscle samples from 43 (3 field and 40 experimental) cases of C-BSE; however, muscle spindles were not available in many of these cases. Therefore, analysis became restricted to a total of 31 muscles in 23 cattle. Even after this restriction, low levels of PrP^Sc were detected in the muscle spindles of the masseter, intercostal, triceps brachii, psoas major, quadriceps femoris and semitendinosus muscles from 3 field and 6 experimental clinical-stage cases. The present data indicate that small amounts of PrP^Sc are detectable by immunohistochemistry in the skeletal muscles of animals terminally affected with C-BSE.