Persistence of the scrapie agent in glial cells from rat Gasserian ganglion.

ABSTRACT

Persistence of the scrapie agent in glial cell monolayers from rat Gasserian ganglion have been studied by electron microscopy, virologic and histologic methods. Under chosen experimental conditions the scrapie agent had been shown to persist in cells for over 2 years. The infected cells appeared to be infectious for BALB/c mice throughout. Persistence of the scrapie agent was associated with development of a marked proliferative effect with increasing mitotic index of the cells. Changes similar to those observed in the CNS in vivo were found by means of electron microscopy. The decreased number of oncovirus-containing cells seems to indicate the decreased proportion of such cells in the culture infected with scrapie agent.