Alveolar lining layer is thin and continuous: low-temperature scanning electron microscopy of rat lung.

The low-temperature electron microscope, which preserves aqueous structures as solid water at liquid nitrogen temperature, was used to image the alveolar lining layer, including surfactant and its aqueous subphase, of air-filled lungs frozen in anesthetized rats at 15-cmH2O transpulmonary pressure. Lining layer thickness was measured on cross fractures of walls of the outermost subpleural alveoli that could be solidified with metal mirror cryofixation at rates sufficient to limit ice crystal growth to 10 nm and prevent appreciable water movement. The thickness of the liquid layer averaged 0.

Ultrastructural localization of scrapie prion proteins in cytoplasmic vesicles of infected cultured cells.

Infectious scrapie prions are composed largely, if not entirely, of an abnormal isoform of the prion protein (PrP) designated PrPSc. In scrapie-infected mouse neuroblastoma (ScN2a) and hamster brain (ScHaB) cells, PrPSc accumulates primarily within the cell cytoplasm, whereas cellular PrP (PrPC) is anchored to the external surface of the plasma membrane by a glycoinositol phospholipid moiety. To determine the subcellular localization of PrPSc, scrapie-infected cells were grown to approximately 75% confluency, fixed briefly, and then incubated with guanidine thiocyanate before antibody staining and examination by electron microscopy.

Scrapie prion rod formation in vitro requires both detergent extraction and limited proteolysis.

Scrapie prion infectivity can be enriched from hamster brain homogenates by using limited proteolysis and detergent extraction. Purified fractions contain both scrapie infectivity and the protein PrP 27-30, which is aggregated in the form of prion rods. During purification, PrP 27-30 is produced from a larger membrane protein, PrPSc, by limited proteolysis with proteinase K.

Properties of scrapie prion protein liposomes.

Purified scrapie prions contain one identifiable macromolecule, PrP 27-30, which polymerizes into rod-shaped amyloids. The rods can be dissociated with retention of scrapie infectivity upon incorporation of PrP 27-30 into detergent-lipid-protein complexes (DLPC) as well as liposomes. As measured by end-point titration, scrapie infectivity was increased greater than 100-fold upon dissociating the rods into liposomes.