




Located throughout the body, lymph nodes filter, sequester, and destroy, harmful or infectious substances circulating in lymph fluid formed throughout the body. Lining the epithelium of the small intestine, Peyer's patches are sections of lymph nodules. Peyer's patches are named for Hans Conrad Peyer, a Swiss anatomist who lived in the 17th century. They are particularly concentrated in areas called Peyer's patches. M cells live in the epithelium, or lining, of the intestine. The epithelium, in its many cell forms, is located throughout the body, including the lungs, reproductive organs, heart, and digestive and respiratory tract and skin. The thin mucousal tissue that lines the gut is called the epithelium. With the role of transferring microbes from the gut across the intestinal barrier, M Cells are an important player in body defense. When consumed, prions travel to the gut, where they mingle with M cells. Prion diseases are devastating, fatal conditions that usually make their way into the body through contaminated meat or through pasturing and animal-to-animal conditions. While there are tests to support a diagnosis, there is currently no cure for prion disease. These spreading clumps of abnormally folded proteins lead to brain damage that impairs motor ability and memory, causes personality changes and dementia, and ultimately leads to death. Probiotics: What We Do & Don't Know About Keeping the Microbes in Your Gut Healthy Pathogenic prions target normal prion proteins and cause abnormal folding and dysfunction. Abnormal prions are introduced to the body by eating infected food, medical contamination, or through genetic inheritance. Normal prion proteins are found throughout the body, especially the brain. All of these diseases are called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). Sheep are effected by a similar disease called scrapie. In the US, hunters are urged to use caution processing or consuming deer from areas where chronic wasting disease is found. Prion diseases are a group of related diseases that effect humans, cattle, and hoofed ruminant mammals with antlers, like deer, elk, and moose. The term prion disease may not be familiar to you, but if you have heard of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (often called "mad cow disease"), or chronic wasting disease, then you are in prion disease territory. Image via Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) What Are Prion Diseases & How Do They Get to the Brain? In human brain tissue, the arrow points to a lesion caused by Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
