The role of astrocytes in pathogenesis of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (CJD), one of the slow virus infections of human central nervous system caused by an unconventional virus (prion) has been studied. Histological and ultrastructural examinations of the brain of both dead people and experimentally infected guinea pigs, combined with the data on morphofunctional state of infected monolayer glial culture analysis have shown astrocytes, as well as neurons, to be target-cells for the causative agent of the disease. The astrocyte changes observed were evaluated as proliferative-degenerative ones with the activation prevailing over the cell destruction. It was determined that both fibrous and protoplasmic astrocytes are sensitive to the cell-destructive effect of the CJD agent. Only few astrocytes possess phagocytic activity against the background of CNS degenerative changes in CJD. It is supposed that activated astrocytes are involved in new intercellular reactions, this involvement aggravating the pathological process.
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