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Abnormal prion protein in the pituitary in sporadic and variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

Hafsana P. Uddin^1,

¹ National Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease Surveillance Unit (NCJDSU) and Division of Pathology, School of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, UK
² Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Hills Road, Cambridge, UK

Correspondence
Alexander H. Peden
A.Peden{at}ed.ac.uk

By using high-sensitivity Western blotting and immunohistochemistry, pituitary glands from patients with sporadic and variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (sCJD and vCJD, respectively) were analysed for the presence of the protease-resistant form of the prion protein (PrP^res). PrP^res was detected in a greater proportion of vCJD pituitaries than sCJD pituitaries and was localized predominantly in the neurohypophysis. PrP^res was also detected in a recurrent pituitary adenoma from an sCJD patient. Immunohistochemical analysis showed sparse positive labelling, predominantly in folliculostellate cells, in vCJD and sCJD adenohypophyses. The PrP^res glycosylation pattern in the vCJD neurohypophyses showed a predominance of the unglycosylated band, which differed markedly from patterns found in all other vCJD tissues. The presence of PrP^res in the pituitary of CJD patients at autopsy suggests that human growth hormone-related iatrogenic CJD may have indeed resulted from infectivity in collected pituitaries rather than necessarily from contamination of pituitary pools by adjacent brain tissue.

Present address: Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, University of Dundee, Level 10, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee DD1 9YS, UK.