Accumulation of prion protein in tonsil and appendix: review of tissue samples

doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7365.633

BMJ 2002;325:633-634 ( 21 September )

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Accumulation of prion protein in tonsil and appendix: review of tissue samples

David A Hilton, neuropathologist ^a, Azra C Ghani, research fellow ^b, Lisa Conyers, research technician ^a, Philip Edwards, biomedical scientist ^a, Linda McCardle, biomedical scientist ^c, Mark Penney, research technician ^a, Diane Ritchie, research assistant ^c, James W Ironside, professor of clinical neuropathology ^c.

^a Department of Histopathology, Derriford Hospital, Plymouth PL6 8DH, ^b Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2AZ, ^c National CJD Surveillance Unit, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 2XU

Correspondence to: D A Hilton david.hilton@phnt.swest.nhs.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is almost certainly caused by the bovine spongiform encephalopathy agent, and although thedisease is rare (115 deaths to date) there is uncertainty aboutfuture numbers of cases.¹ The lack of a conventional immuneresponse and the inability to detect abnormal prion protein inblood has hampered the development of a blood test.¹ Lymphoreticularaccumulation of prion protein has been used as a preclinical testfor scrapie (the form of the disease in sheep and goats) and isa consistent feature of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, occurringbefore the onset of symptoms.^2-4 We screened large numbers ofspecimens from appendicectomies and tonsillectomies for the presenceof prion protein in lymphoreticular tissue to determine the numberof people with preclinical variant Creutzfeldt-Jakobdisease.

Methods and results

We retrieved appendix and tonsil samples removed between 1995 and 1999 from patients aged 10-50 from histopathology departmentsacross the United Kingdom. The samples were anonymised beforetesting. We also . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

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The use of human tissue in research.: Benjamin Swift
bmj.com, 20 Sep 2002 [Full text]
Is this science ?: Jarlath Hynes
bmj.com, 21 Sep 2002 [Full text]
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: George A Venters
bmj.com, 26 Sep 2002 [Full text]
Re: The use of human tissue in research.: David A Hilton
bmj.com, 30 Sep 2002 [Full text]
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Re: Questions re. Validity of Test and Sampling: David A Hilton
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Immune activation in peripheral blood of patients with prion diseases: Gabriele Neurauter, et al.
bmj.com, 10 Oct 2002 [Full text]