In situ assessment of neuroinflammatory cytokines in different stages of ovine natural prion disease

Clear changes in the expression of most of the assessed markers were observed in the affected sheep compared to the healthy control sheep, and from different stages. In summary, this preliminary IHC study focusing in the Purkinje cell layer changes demonstrate that all cytokines or respective receptors studied (IL-1, IL-1R, IL-2R, IL-6, IL-10R, and TNFαR) except for IFNγR are disease-associated signaling proteins showing an increase or decrease in relation to the progression of clinical disease. In the future, this study will be extended to other inflammatory mediators and brain regions, focusing in particular on the release of these inflammatory mediators by astroglial and microglial populations.