Small intestine and small colon neuropathy in equine dysautonomia (grass sickness)

The number of neurons in the coeliacomesenteric ganglia and the myenteric and submucosal plexuses of the jejunum, ileum and small colon, and the pathological changes induced in them, were studied in various types of equine dysautonomia. In all forms of dysautonomia, severe and extensive neuron loss and damage occurred in the ileum. In acute and subacute dysautonomia, jejunal neuron loss and damage were severe, but in chronic cases significantly less loss or damage occurred. The damage followed the same pattern in the small colon but it was always less obvious than in the jejunum. The distribution of the damage was uniform within a segment of the intestine. In fatal cases of dysautonomia, the clinical severity and duration of illness seems, in most instances, to be related to the amount of neuronal disruption occurring in the jejunum. Severe disruption results in acute/subacute dysautonomia, while milder damage leads to the chronic form.No case of dysautonomia was encountered in which enteric neuron loss and damage occurred without significant neuronal disruption also occurring in the coeliacomesenteric ganglia.Ileal neuronal damage and loss are not invariably worse than that in the jejunum, and the possible reasons for this, together with the relationship between neuronal damage and possible causes of dysautonomia, are discussed.Abbreviations H&E haematoxylin and eosin Deceased. Formerly of the Moredun Research Institute, 408 Gilmerton Road, Edinburgh, EH17 7JH, UK     

Effect of heat stress on the behavioral and physiological patterns of Small-tail Han sheep housed indoors

Tropical Animal Health and Production - This study was conducted to investigate the effects of heat stress on the behavioral and physiological patterns in Small-tail Han sheep housed indoors in...     

Graphical Genotype of Maize Inbred B86 Revealed by RFLPs

The objective of this study was to investigate the origin of chromosome segments of maize (Zea mays L.) inbred B86 from its parental inbreds B52 and Oh43 using RFLPS. B86 was selected to combine resistance to the first and second brood of the European corn borer with the favorable agronomic performance of Oh43. RFLP analyses of the three inbreds were performed with three restriction enzymes (EcoRI, EcoRV, HindIII) and 178 DNA probes covering all ten maize chromosomes. For two DNA probes in combination with one enzyme, B86 showed a new RFLP pattern not present in the two parents. Based on results from 119 polymorphic DNA probes, the proportion of the B86 genome contributed by B52 (51.3 %) and Oh43 (48.7 %) was almost equal.     

Comment on "Top-down versus bottom-up control of attention in the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices"

Buschman and Miller (Reports, 30 March 2007, p. 1860) described the activity of ensembles of neurons in parietal and frontal cortex of monkeys performing visual search for targets that were easy or hard to distinguish from distractors. However, their conclusions are called into question by discrepancies between their results and publications from other laboratories measuring the same neural process.     

Cyclooxygenase expression in the early stages of equine laminitis: a cytologic study

BACKGROUND: Recent reports indicate increased amounts of mRNA from inflammation-related genes in the prodromal stage of laminitis. HYPOTHESIS: Cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) undergo distinct patterns of expression in equine laminae in the developmental stage (DEV) and acute clinical stage (LAM) of laminitis. ANIMALS: Horses selected from an outbred population were placed into 1 of 4 groups: DEV (n = 5), CON-3h (control group for DEV, n = 5), LAM (n = 5) and CON-10h (control group for LAM, n = 5). METHODS: Laminar and skin samples were obtained from (1) animals either undergoing leukopenia (DEV) or the onset of clinical signs of laminitis (LAM) after black walnut extract (BWE) administration and (2) animals either 3 (CON-3h) or 10 (CON-10h) hours after administration of water. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), immunoblotting, and immunohistochemical analysis were performed for COX-1 and COX-2. RESULTS: Upon immunohistochemical analysis of all 4 groups, COX-2 was expressed by most viable epithelial cells in both laminae and skin. COX-1 exhibited similar epithelial expression to COX-2 in skin epidermis, but was expressed exclusively in the basal layer of laminar epidermis. COX-1 protein was not detectable in dermal vasculature of equine skin or laminae, whereas COX-2 was present in endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells of dermal vasculature in both skin and laminae in all groups. A marked increase in laminar COX-2 protein concentrations was detected on immunoblotting in the DEV group, although a lesser increase was observed in the LAM group. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: COX-2 protein expression is markedly increased in the resident laminar cell types in the developmental stage of BWE-induced laminitis.     

Metastatic immune infiltrates correlate with those of the primary tumour in canine osteosarcoma

Our lack of understanding of the immune microenvironment in canine osteosarcoma (cOSA) has limited the identification of potential immunotherapeutic targets. In particular, our ability to utilize readily available tissue from a dog's primary tumour to predict the type and extent of immune response in their pulmonary metastatic lesions is unknown. We, therefore, collected 21 matched pairs of primary tumours and pulmonary metastatic lesions from dogs with OSA and performed immunohistochemistry to quantify T‐lymphocyte (CD3), FOXP3+ cell, B‐lymphocyte (Pax‐5), and CD204+ macrophage infiltration. We found that T‐lymphocytes and FOXP3+ infiltrates in primary tumours positively correlated with that of metastatic lesions (ρ = 0.512, P = 0.038 and ρ = 0.698, P = 0.007, respectively), while a strong trend existed for CD204+ infiltrates (ρ = 0.404, P = 0.087). We also observed T‐ and B‐lymphocytes, and CD204+ macrophages to be significantly higher in a dog's pulmonary metastasis compared to their primary tumour (P = 0.018, P = 0.018, P = 0.016, respectively), while FOXP3+ cells were only significantly higher in metastases when all primary tumour and metastasis lesions were compared without pairing (P = 0.036). Together, these findings suggest that the metastatic immune microenvironment may be influenced by that of the primary cOSA, and that primary tumour immune biomarkers could potentially be applied to predict immunotherapeutic responses in gross metastatic disease. We, therefore, provide a rationale for the treatment of cOSA pulmonary metastases with immunotherapeutics that enhance the anti‐tumour activity of these immune cells, particularly in dogs with moderate to high immune cell infiltration in their primary tumours.     

Efficacy of vaporised ethyl formate/carbon dioxide formulation against stored‐grain insects: effect of fumigant concentration,exposure time and two grain temperatures

BACKGROUND: The ethyl formate/carbon dioxide (CO₂) formulation Vapormate? is a rapid‐acting fumigant being developed for the control of stored‐grain insects. The effects have been investigated of concentration, exposure times of 1, 3, 24 and 72 h and two grain temperatures, 15 and 25 °C, on its efficacy against mixed‐stage cultures of Sitophilus oryzae (L.) Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) and strongly phosphine‐resistant Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) strain QRD569. RESULTS: High mortalities (≥92%) of mixed‐stage cultures of all three species were obtained when grain was fumigated with the formulation (193 g m^?3 ethyl formate) for 1 h. Complete control of R. dominica QRD569 and T. castaneum was achieved with 63 and 76 g m^?3 ethyl formate respectively, with exposure for 24 h, whereas mean mortality of S. oryzae was 86% under the same conditions. Mortalities of S. oryzae juvenile stages were significantly lower than adults under the conditions tested, which was due to pronounced tolerance of mid‐stage pupae to the fumigant. Reducing grain temperature from 25 to 15 °C had no effect on insect mortality. CONCLUSION: Ethyl formate/CO₂ formulation is highly effective against stored‐grain insects over a range of concentrations and exposure times. Efficacious fumigations were conducted in as little as 1 h, and a strongly phosphine‐resistant R. dominica strain was readily controlled with the fumigant. Copyright © 2009 CSIRO, Australia. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd