Figure 2

Lesion profiles and density of florid plaques in brains of Tg40 mice inoculated with PMCA-treated urine or brain homogenate (BH) from vCJD. (A) The profiles of topographic distribution and severity of SD in each group of mice were similar; subcortical regions were predominantly affected with the thalamus showing the most severe lesions. Inoculation of undiluted (1x) PMCA-treated urine resulted in widespread increase of SD which was significantly more severe in the cerebral cortex when compared with the SD in mice inoculated with 10% BH (*p < 0.03). No lesions were detected in mice inoculated with PMCA-unseeded substrate. CC: Cerebral cortex; Sept.N: Septal nuclei; HI: Hippocampus; BG: Basal ganglia; TH: Thalamus; Hth: Hypothalamus; BS: Brainstem; CE: Cerebellum. (B) Florid plaque burden, expressed as the percentage of the area occupied by the florid plaques, was comparable in the two groups of mice. (C) Florid plaque size, expressed in µm². In B and C values were obtained from the examination of all available CC areas. Similar values were obtained when equal number of areas were compared in the two groups (data not shown). All data are expressed as mean ± SEM. NS: not significant.