Figure 1
Purification and conjugation of prion rods from infected brain homogenate and real-time whole-mouse in vivo imaging.
(a) Western blot analysis depicting CWD infected elk brain homogenate used as starting material (5 µg in lane 1 and 100 µg in lane 2) from which we enriched prion rod aggregates (100 ng in lanes 3 and 4). Lanes 5 and 6 show 100 µg of control elk normal brain homogenate. (b) SDS page gel depicting fluorochrome tagged prion rods. Prions treated at 37°C without Proteinase K (PK, lane 1) or with PK (lane 2) and at 95°C with PK (lane 3). Molecular weight markers are shown in kilodaltons to the left of the blots. (c) In vivo detection of prion rods by epifluorescent whole-body optical imaging. Representative images of tg5037 mice injected orally or subcutaneously with PBS or fluorescent prion rods or 1 µm polystyrene microspheres (beads). Images were acquired at indicated time points after injection.
