Calbindin distribution in cortical and subcortical brain structures of normal and rabies-infected mice.

Rabies has been an enigmatic disease of the nervous system because microscopic findings in the brain tissue are not paralleled by the severity of the clinical illness. The calcium binding protein calbindin (CB) is a neuronal marker of great interest in neuroanatomy and neuropathology. CB-ir neurons in the striatum and cerebral cortex are gabaergic cells. In the present work CB-immunoreactivity was evaluated in brains of normal and rabies-infected mice. Rabies infection caused loss of CB-immunostaining in the cortical supragranular layers as well as in the striatum. Loss of CB in the brains of mice infected with rabies virus can produce impairment in Ca++ homeostasis and in the gabaergic neurotransmission.