Volume 52 (2): 145-151, 2004 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc.
Detection of PrPsc on Lymphoid Tissues from Naturally Affected Scrapie Animals : Comparison of Three Visualization Systems
National Reference Centre for TSEs, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain Correspondence to: Juan José Badiola Díez, National Reference Centre for Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies, Dept. of Animal Pathology of the Veterinary Faculty, C/ Miguel Servet 177, 50013 Zaragoza. Spain. E-mail: badiola{at}unizar.es
We assessed three different visualization systems used routinely in research and diagnosis of transmissable spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) to demonstrate whether the methodology applied to immunohistochemical (IHC) examination may alter the results concerning detection of prion protein (PrPsc) in the lymphoreticular system (LRS): avidinbiotinperoxidase (Vectastain ABC kit; Vector), Envision (DAKO), and catalyzed signal amplification (CSA; DAKO). The study aimed to determine which of these showed the highest sensitivity, with the hope of providing an accurate tool for pathogenesis and preclinical diagnosis research in TSEs. Histological sections from palatine tonsils, spleen, GALT (ileum and ileocecal valve), and lymph nodes from sheep belonging to a Spanish scrapie-positive flock were processed by IHC using L42 as primary antibody. As substrate chromogen, diaminobenzidine was used, and all slides were subjectively assessed by light microscopy. A further study using an image analyzer software system was carried out to confirm that the conclusion provided by microscopic examination was objective. The CSA system showed the highest sensitivity in all cases, increasing both variables assessed: the number of follicles that were PrPsc-positive was detected as well as the intensity of immunostaining in each of them. (J Histochem Cytochem 52:145151, 2004)
Key Words: TSEs scrapie immunohistochemistry lymphoid tissue visualization systems
SCRAPIE, a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) that naturally affects sheep and goats, is characterized by PrPsc accumulation mainly in the central nervous system (CNS) and the lymphoreticular system (LRS). Because no immune response against TSE's infectious agent is developed in the infected host, the diagnosis of this disease is based on detection of compatible clinical signs followed by application of histopathological and immunochemical methods on neural tissue samples used for confirmation (i.e., postmortem diagnosis; OIE Manual of Standards for Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines). Therefore, the long incubation period between infection and the onset of the clinical signs of scrapie involves a possible source of transmission of the infection to other animals (associated with preclinically infected animals). This fact, together with the recently determined linkage between variant CreutzfeldtJakob Disease (v-CJD) and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE; Bruce et al. 1997
The detection of PrPsc in the LRS (Ikegami et al. 1991
In this sense, both methods are a practical screen for early detection of PrPsc in living affected sheep (Kim et al. 2001
In this study, different visualization systems used routinely in research and diagnosis (Hardt et al. 2000
Sheep All 16 animals included in this study belonged to a Rasa Aragonesa sheep flock in which an outbreak of natural scrapie occurred in June of 2002. Since the flock has been quarantined and regularly monitored, several more cases of scrapie have been diagnosed. All the sheep were raised under the normal conditions for a sheep-producing flock, with no physical separation between animals, and they were removed from the flock just before culling. Rules established in the National Research Council's guide for animal experimentation were followed for animal handling and care. The study involved a total of seven positive cases (diagnosis was confirmed by neurological examination, histopathology, and IHC in all of them), all of which occurred in adult female sheep of genotypes corresponding to ARQ/ARQ. The genotype of the nine negative animals was also of intermediate and high susceptibility (ARQ/ARQ, ARQ/ARH, or ARR/ARQ). The seven scrapie-positive sheep exhibited symptoms of the disease.
Necropsy and Tissue Collection
Immunohistochemistry PrPsc detection was performed using the monoclonal antibody L42 (R-Biopharm, Darmstadt, Germany; 1:500) in all cases.
Immunostaining Procedures
Envision System
Catalyzed Signal Amplification (CSA) System
Controls
Microscopic Assessment
Image Analyzer Assessment To confirm that the microscopic assessment provided accurate and reliable results about the sensitivity of the systems tested in the study, an objective assessment methodology was additionally applied. A further study consisting of assessing the intensity of immunostaining in the same 10 lymphoid follicles present in each sample examined using an image analyzer software system (MIP4) was carried out. A single tissue (tonsil) corresponding to three different animals and two visualization systems (EnVision and CSA systems) was chosen in this case.
Statistical Study
A total of 2066 lymphoid follicles were finally assessed in the present study as PrPsc accumulation was detected. No immunostaining was detected either in CNS or in lymphoid tissue of any negative sheep. No nonspecific staining was observed in the controls used in this study. Both tingible body macrophages and follicular dendritic cell labeling patterns (Jeffrey et al. 2000
No statistical differences (p>0.05) between the results obtained by the ABC and the EnVision systems were observed on the basis of the results provided by this study. However, although no different results concerning presence/absence of PrPsc in any sample were found, the number of follicles in which it was detected, as well as the intensity scored in each of them, differed when the CSA system was used (p<0.0001). Not only did CSA detect positivity in almost twice the number of follicles (958) than did other two visualization systems (574 and 534, respectively), which means an improvement in sensitivity of about 40% (40.1 and 44.3) over the ABC and EnVision systems, but the CSA system even assessed a total of 223 follicles with the highest score intensity (+++++) against two or three follicles with this same score being allocated by using the other two systems. Furthermore, whereas + and ++ intensity was provided by the ABC and EnVision systems in approximately 75% of the total of follicles assessed, the proportion was inverted with use of the CSA system, in which this percentage corresponded to the follicles scored with +++, ++++, and +++++, specifically, 50% of follicles with ++++ and +++++. On the other hand, according to the results obtained in the present study, tonsil was the tissue in which the highest number of follicles were considered as positive (the number of follicles corresponding to lymph nodes, 1049, is the sum of those considered in three lymph nodes: mesenteric, mediastinal, and retropharyngeal), regardless of the visualization system used. This fact, in combination with the findings about significant and nonsignificant differences between the systems tested, made it possible to carry out a comparative study by image analyzer using a single source of tissue (tonsil) and two visualization systems (EnVision and CSA). Concerning the image analyzer assessment, statistical differences (p<0.005; Figures 2 and 3) between the number of pixels provided by using both EnVision and CSA systems were found, the most sensitive system reaching a value (12,610.93 ± 2721.37) of more than three times the mean obtained with EnVision (3858.37 ± 694.58).
How TSE's infectious agent propagates from LRS tissues to the CNS in naturally occurring scrapie is not yet clear. However, it is assumed that the LRS is involved in the prion neuroinvasion (van Keulen et al. 1996
Although the enhancement of sensitivity of conventional methods could be considered a possible option for the detection of the whole number of positive scrapie cases (and therefore also of preclinical animals), not many works dealing with this practical alternative can be found in the literature. One study applying the tyramide signal amplification system (Heggebo et al. 2000
All the clinically affected sheep showed marked and widespread PrPsc accumulation throughout all tissues sampled. Moreover, according to other authors' findings (Wadsworth et al. 2001
In conclusion, the lack of an absolute IHC protocol performance for this group of diseases encourages the search for new methodologies for the study of in vivo diagnostic strategies and of prion pathogenesis that would be both reliable and as sensitive as possible. According to the results provided by the present study, the CSA system may play an important role in this field. In addition, Jeffrey et al. (2001a)
We thank the technical staff for assistance in processing the samples and the University of Zaragoza, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, and Gobierno de Aragón for financial support. The statistical work developed by Iñaki Albizu (EXOPOL S.L.) is also gratefully acknowledged.
Received for publication August 13, 2003; accepted October 1, 2003
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