Elektronenmikroskopische Beobachtungen bei experimenteller Poliomyelitis

Summary The lumbar motor columns of a cynomolgus monkey which had become tetraplegic after infection with a highly virulent strain of type 3 poliovirus were examined by electron microscopy. Within the cytoplasm of many endothelial cells of intraspinal blood vessels, as well as within the perikarya of numerous mononuclear inflammatory cells, there occurred regular arrays of dense particles which, on the basis of morphological evidence, could be identified as poliovirus crystals. The possible significance of virual replication by endothelial and mononuclear cells for poliovirus spread within the central nervous system is briefly discussed.