Virusähnliche Filamente und kristalloide Einschlüsse bei einem Fall von “primärer” Reticuloendotheliose des Gehirns

Summary

A 57 year old male complained of tiredness, apathy, dysarthria, unsteadiness of gait. The symptoms became more and more severe. Temperatures of 39° C (102.2° F) appeared and the patient died after 4 months illness. At autopsy pulmonary embolism was found. The neuropathological examination revealed changes typical of neuroreticulosis, such as tumor-like proliferation of reticulum cells in the medio-basal parts of the brain with abundant formation of reticulin fibres and diffuse astro- and microglial proliferations also in the cerebral cortex with perivascular cuffs.

Electron microscopic study performed after 9 months of formalin-fixation of the tissue showed:

• 1. “virus-like”-filamentous structures in the cytoplasm of proliferated reticular cells near the vascular wall, which had an outside diameter of about 140–150 Å, and a length of 2300 Å.

• 2. peculiar distribution of nucleoprotein in the proliferative cells, such as filamentous or net-like structures of about 160 Å outside diameter.

• 3. intraplasmatic and nuclear crystalline structures of oblong rhombic shape with differentiated dark and bright stripes with a periodicity of 300–350 Å.

There is some possibility that mixoviruses may play an aetiological role in neuroreticulosis.