Atypical myopathy in 2 Bactrian camels.

Atypical myopathy (AM) is an acute seasonal rhabdomyolysis seen primarily in equids, caused by the ingestion of sycamore maple samaras containing hypoglycin A (HGA) and methylenecyclopropyl-glycine (MCPG). Toxic metabolites inhibit acyl-CoA dehydrogenases and enoyl-CoA hydratases, causing selective hyaline degeneration of type I muscle fibers. Two zoo-kept Bactrian camels () with a fatal course of AM had sudden onset of muscle pain and weakness, recumbency, and dysphagia, accompanied by increased serum creatine kinase activity and detection in serum of HGA, MCPG, and metabolites.

[Therapy of bullous pemphigoid in a Warmblood gelding].

A 15-year-old Warmblood gelding was presented with multiple large, ulcerative, and crusty dermal lesions that had been existing for 4 years. Histopathology of a skin biopsy revealed cleft formation at the dermal-epidermal junction beneath the basal cells and above the basement membrane leading to the diagnosis of bullous pemphigoid. Immunosuppressive therapy with dexamethasone and azathioprine was initiated and after 14 weeks full remission of the ulcers was achieved.

Effects of a blend of green tea and curcuma extract supplementation on lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation in horses and ponies.

Background: In horses and ponies numerous medical conditions are known to be linked with inflammation in different tissues, especially in the liver. Besides affecting other metabolic pathways such as the expression of certain interleukins (IL), inflammation is associated with stress of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In particular, ER stress leads to adaptive stress response and can be measured by several markers of inflammatory and stress signalling pathways, like nuclear factor κB (NF-kB).

Dysuria due to discospondylitis and intervertebral disc herniation in a male alpaca (Vicugna pacos).

Background: Dysuria in camelids is usually associated with the presence of lower urinary tract disease such as urolithiasis. As another differential diagnosis, urine retention may be caused by neurological disturbances resulting from infections of the spinal cord, discospondylitis or trauma.

Case Presentation: A 2.

Cutaneous amelanotic signet-ring cell malignant melanoma with interspersed myofibroblastic differentiation in a young cat.

The diagnosis of malignant melanoma can be difficult because these tumors can be amelanotic and may contain diverse variants and divergent differentiations, of which the signet-ring cell subtype is very rare and has only been described in humans, dogs, cats, and a hamster. We describe herein histopathologic and immunohistochemical approaches taken to diagnose a case of signet-ring cell malignant melanoma with myofibroblastic differentiation in a cat. A tumor within the abdominal skin of a 2-year-old cat was composed of signet-ring cells and irregularly interwoven streams of spindle cells.

Surface glycoprotein of Borna disease virus mediates virus spread from cell to cell.

Borna disease virus (BDV) is a non-segmented negative-stranded RNA virus that maintains a strictly neurotropic and persistent infection in affected end hosts. The primary target cells for BDV infection are brain cells, e.g.

Phenotype, differentiation, and function differ in rat and mouse neocortical astrocytes cultured under the same conditions.

The study of slowly progressing brain diseases in which glial cells play a pathogenic role requires astrocytes that have been cultured for several weeks. We characterized neocortical astrocytes, grown for up to 42 days in vitro (DIV), from newborn rats and mice by indirect immunofluorescence technique, Western blot, and real-time RT-PCR analyses. We obtained highly enriched rat and mouse astrocyte cultures, where most cells were positively stained for the astrocyte markers GFAP, vimentin, and S100β, whereas neuronal and oligodendrocyte markers were undetectable.