5/21/98

Creutzfeldt-Jakob (sp?) disease specimens in a histology laboratory. It

was an eye-opening article and mentioned a number of references that dealt

with infectivity after fixation in formalin and paraffin embedding.

Unfortunately, I have misplaced the article, but I do remember that it was

printed in the newsletter edited by Don Grimes, called Microscopy Today,

possibly from February or March 98. The web address for the newsletter is:

www.microscopy-today.com.

Regards,

Vicky Madden

Victoria J. Madden

Dept. of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

vmadden@med.unc.edu

"Handling Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease Tissues in the Histology Laboratory." by

Michael Titford and Frank O. Bastian. MT, Feb/March '98 (#98-2), reprinted

from the Journal of Histotechnology, Sept. 1983, vol. 12 #3.

Philip Oshel

Technical Editor, Microscopy Today

PO Box 5037

Station A

Champaign, IL 61825-5037

USA

oshel@shout.net

or poshel@hotmail.com

agent after aldehyde treatment) is certainly evident after reading the

following references. Anyone doubting the survival of such agents would do

well to discuss this with Nobel Laureat, Prusiner, who discovered prions in

the first place.

Take care with these tissues. One mistake could be fatal!!!

Prusiner, S.B.: The prion diseases. Sci Am 272:70-77, 1995

Telling, G.C., Scott, M., Hsiao, K.K., Foster, D., Yang, S.-L.l, Torchia,

M., Sidle, K.C.L., Collinge, J., DeArmond, S.J., Prusiner, S.B.:

Transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from humans to

transgenic mice expressing chimeric human-mouse prion protein. Proc. Natl.

Acad. Sci. USA 91:9936-9940, 1994.

Cohen, F.E., Pan, K.-M., Huang, Z., Baldwin, M., Fletterick, R.J.,

Prusiner, S.B.: Structural clues to prion replication. Science 264:530-531,

1994.

Westaway, D., DeArmond, S.J., Cayetano-Canlas, J., Groth, D., Foster, D.,

Yang, S.-L., Torchia, M., Carlson, G.A., Prusiner, S.B.: Degeneration of

skeletal muscle, peripheral nerves, and the central

nervous system in transgenic mice overexpressing wild-type prion proteins.

Cell 76:117-129, 1994.

Carlson, G.A., Ebeling, C., Yang, S.-L., Telling, G., Torchia, M., Groth,

D., Westaway, D., DeArmond, S.J., Prusiner, S.B.: Eveidence for isolate

specified allotypic interactions between the cellular

and scrapie prion proteins in congenic and transgenic mice. Proc. Natl.

Acad. Sci. USA 91:5690-5694, 1994.

####################################################################

John J. Bozzola, Ph.D., Director

Center for Electron Microscopy

Neckers Building, Room 146 - B Wing

Southern Illinois University

Carbondale, IL 62901

U.S.A.

Phone: 618-453-3730

Fax: 618-453-2665

Email: bozzola@siu.edu

Web: http://www.siu.edu/departments/shops/cem.html

Regarding CJD and prion diseases, the handling of these tissues in

the laboratory (and the mortuary!!) has excercised the minds of

neuropathologists in Britain and Europe for some time. There is a

"Consensus Report" from European neuropathologists regarding this

subject (1), and the UK Advisory Committee for Dangerous Pathogens

has also produced several reports (2). The Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease

Surveillance Unit, in Edinburgh, also have protocols for handling

these materials, including transportation and emergency response

protocols.

(1) H Budka et al. Tissue handling in suspected Creutzeldt-Jakob

disease (CJD) and other spongiform encephalopathies (prion diseases).

Brain Pathology 5: 319-22 (1995).

(2) Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens. Precautions for work

with human and animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.

HMSO, London (1994).

Richard Bonshek

Dept of Pathological Sciences

University of Manchester

rbonshek@fs1.scg.man.ac.uk