Early sterile autopsy in etiological studies on multiple sclerosis

Pathological alterations of ependyma and choroid plexus after experimental cerebral infection of mice with Sendai virus

The effects of intracerebral inoculation of Sendai virus into young adult mice were investigated by immunofluorescence, light, and electron microscopy. Immunofluorescence of virus-specific antigens was maximal on the third day after inoculation, revealing infection of leptomeninges, ependyma, and choroid plexus. Histologically, meningitis, ependymitis, and choroiditis occurred between the second and third days. The choroiditis was associated with formation of vacuoles within the cytoplasm of epithelial cells. The vacuoles reached diameters up to 50 micrometer. The ubiquitous vacuolization of plexus epithelia resulted in a honeycomb-like pattern. Opaque viral inclusions were visible within the cytoplasm of choroidal and ependymal epithelium as well as in mononuclear inflammatory cells. On electron microscopy, they were composed of intracytoplasmic nucleocapsid accumulations. Viria lay free between microvilli of plexus epithelial cells, and budding virus structures were observed at cellular surfaces. Occasionally, complete viria occurred in the cytoplasm of plexus epithelial cells and were surrounded by a unit membrane from which they appeared to arise by budding. The formation of this small cavity can be interpreted as the first stage of vacuole formation.

Pseudoviral hollow-cored vesicles in multiple sclerosis brain

Novel, superficially 'virus-like' hollow-cored particles 50--60 nm in diameter were found in the perivascular extracellular space of the brain from a patient who died with acute multiple sclerosis (MS). It is concluded that they are not virions but are derived from myelin undergoing vesicular demyelination. This case demonstrates the need for caution in the interpretation of unusual electron microscopic appearances.

The fine structure of the CNS in multiple sclerosis. I. Interpretation of cytoplasmic papovavirus-like and paramyxovirus-like inclusions

During an electron microscopic study of the white matter in multiple sclerosis (MS), spheroidal reticular particles were found both in MS and in control brains. These particles have previously been described in the brain in MS and in brain-derived cell cultures in subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. In both cases they were interpreted as papovaviruses, but in size, morphology and distribution they are identical to the reticulosomes and related particles which occur as proteinaceous artefacts in a variety of tissues and in subcellular fractions. Inclusions in endothelial cell cytoplasm, previously reported from the CNS in MS as paramyxovirus similar to measles, have also been found in the present study. The were present both in MS and in control brains and are identified as "rod-shaped tubular bodies", normally occurring organelles of endothelial cells. The necessity for a cautious interpretation of virus like inclusions in emphasized.

Serological response of multiple sclerosis patients and controls to 6/94-parainfluenza virus

The serological responses of 195 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and 251 controls were tested against 6/94-parainfluenza virus, which was previously isolated from brain tissue of two patients with MS. The hemagglutination-inhibition titers of greater than or equal to 1: 128 were found more frequently in MS patients (21.5%) than in controls (14.0%). However, the geometric mean titers did not differ between these two groups. The present study concludes that a causal relationship of 6/94-virus to MS, based on a specific immune response, is improbable, although it does not exclude the possibility of a pathogenetic significance of the agent in the cases from which the autopsy material was derived.