Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease with tubulovesicular structures: an ultrastructural study

Tubulovesicular structures (TVS) have been consistently observed in brain tissue of the transmissible spongiform virus encephalopathies such as natural and experimental scrapie, bovine spongiform encephalopathy and experimentally induced Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). TVS were recently demonstrated in 3 cases of naturally occurring CJD. We report here the presence of TVS in another human brain with CJD, as detected in all 3 specimens by thin section electron microscopy. Their occurrence in all types of spongiform encephalopathies, irrespective of the affected host and the strain of infectious agent, emphasizes their biological significance.