Abstract

NAIZAQUE G, Julián Ricardo  and  TORRES-FERNANDEZ, Orlando. IMMUNOREACTIVITY TO CALBINDIN IN PURKINJE CELLS IN THE CEREBELLUM OF MICE IS NOT AFFECTED BY RABIES VIRUS INFECTION. Biosalud [online]. 2016, vol.15, n.2, pp.9-19. ISSN 1657-9550.  https://doi.org/10.17151/biosa.2016.15.2.2.

Introduction: Calbindin (CB) is a regulatory protein of intracellular calcium, and the cerebellar Purkinje cell is the neuron with the highest concentration of CB. Loss of CB immunoreactivity has been demonstrated in different areas of the nervous system in rabies virus-infected mice, but the study of this phenomena in the cerebellum lacked. Objective: To determine the effect of inoculation with rabies virus on the expression of CB in Purkinje cells of the cerebellum of mice. Methodology: Mice were intramuscularly inoculated with rabies virus. Animals were sacrificed when they reached an advanced stage of the disease and then they were fixed by intracardiac perfusion with 4% paraformaldehyde. Cerebellums were extracted and sagittal sections 50 microns thick were obtained in a vibratome. These were processed by immunohistochemistry to reveal the presence of CB protein or rabies virus antigens. The same procedure was performed with uninfected animals (controls). Results: Purkinje cells were massively infected with rabies virus. In the microscopic panoramic images observed was found that only these cells are immunoreactive to CB. No significant difference in CB immunoreactivity evaluated by optical densitometry was found between infected animals and controls. Conclusion: The expression of CB in Purkinje cells of the cerebellum appears not to be affected by infection with rabies unlike what has been shown in other areas of the mouse nervous system.

Keywords : rabies; calbindin; cerebellum; Purkinje cells; calcium binding proteins.

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