Zubert M., Napieralska M., Napieralski A., Sikorska B., Liberski P., Grams R.
Technical University of Lodz, PL
Keywords: BSE, florid plaque, ultrastructural model of florid plaque, vCJD
The Alzheimer, BSE , CJD and vCJD diseases belongs to a group of neurodegenerative diseases characterised by an accumulation of extraneuronal filamentous material consisting of β-sheet proteins of various biochemical properties. Clinically, these diseases manifest as dementia i.e. permanent state of losing cognitive functions like: a memory, an orientation, a visual spatial abilities etc. The research presented in the paper is the integral subpart of Polish State Committee for Scientific Research Grants and British-Polish research programme concerning the investigation of the vCJD pathology (the disease resulted from BSE infection of humans – “human BSE”) by ultrastructural and image analysis techniques. It is foreseen that the results make it possible to recognize the plaques nature, and this way the diseases evolution in this novel prion disorder. The investigation may also indicate the potential therapeutic strategies.
The immunofluorescent reconstruction of a plaque is very difficult, therefore the proposed approach consists of 3D plaque reconstruction using the serial sections of human hipocamp sliced by a microtone. The series of plaque images have been obtained using the electron-microscope (Figure 1 a,b). The thickness of slices is ca. 300-400Å. The special superposition of preprocessed images allows to 3D recognition of slice structure (Figure 1 f) using image-processing algorithms. This process can be performed manually or semi-automatically. We observed some flat structure perturbation and its special analysis give us the information about the florid plaque nature (Figure 1 e). In the final paper version the used algorithms will be presented.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 2, Technical Proceedings of the 2006 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Volume 2
Published: May 7, 2006
Pages: 473 - 476
Industry sectors: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing | Medical & Biotech
Topic: Biomaterials
ISBN: 0-9767985-7-3