Lumbar Myelopathy Caused by Multiple Cartilaginous Exostoses in a Dog.

A 6-months-old male mixed-breed dog was admitted to the veterinary hospital with lameness in the right pelvic limb, proprioceptive ataxia, and suspected spinal cord injury in the lumbosacral segment. Upon palpation, firm nodules were noted on the bony surface of the thoracic and pelvic limbs, ribs, vertebrae, and tail. The radiographic study showed nodules of low radiopacity with well-defined limits and smooth contours, one of which was overlapping the fifth lumbar vertebra. Given the clinical presentation indicative of spinal cord injury, the animal was subjected to hemilaminectomy for nodular resection. Histopathological examination of the biopsy enabled the diagnosis of osteochondroma. The clinical follow up after surgery showed improvement in walking, despite persistent monoparesis in the right pelvic limb. The radiographic study in association with clinical and histopathological exams allowed the diagnosis and monitoring of the lesions.

Behavior of mesenchymal stem cells stained with 4', 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride (DAPI) in osteogenic and non osteogenic cultures.

4', 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride (DAPI) is a DNA dye widely used to mark and trace stem cells in therapy. We here studied the effect of DAPI staining on the behavior of mesenchymal stem cells cultured in either a control, non-osteogenic medium or in an osteogenic differentiation medium. In the control medium, the number of stem cells/field, as well as the number of fluorescent cells/field increased up to the sixth day in both control and DAPI-treated cultures. Afterwards, both the number of fluorescent cells and their fluorescence intensity decreased. Control cells were fusiform and with some long extensions that apparently linked them to neighboring cells, while DAPI-treated cells were mostly round cells with fine and short extensions. The trypan-blue exclusion method showed 99% cell viability in both groups, however, both alkaline phosphatase activity and the thiazolyl blue formazan assay (indicative of mitochondrial metabolism) gave significantly lower values in DAPI-marked cells. The mitochondrial mass, as indicated by specific staining and flow cytometry, showed no differences between groups. Mesenchymal stem cells gave origin to mineralized nodules in the osteogenic differentiation medium and there were not DAPI-marked cells on the ninth day of culture. Alkaline phosphatase activity, viability assay and number of cells/field and of mineralized nodules/field were similar in both groups. So, DAPI treatment did not change cell viability and proliferation during osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. However, since these cells loose DAPI marking after 9 days in osteogenic cultures suggests that DAPI may not be an effective marker for mesenchymal stem cells implanted in bone tissue for long periods.

Desvio para a esquerda associado a compartimento medular de reserva dos neutrófilos não esgotado em cadelas portadoras de piometra / Nuclear left deviation associated with medullary reserve compartment of non exhausted neutrophils in female dogs with pyometra

From fifteen female dogs with clinical diagnoses of pyometra, hematological exams were performed at three times: M0 (prior to the surgery), M24 (24h after ovarysalpingohisterectomy-OSH) and M48 (48h after OSH). Anemia was seen in 80% of the cases, characterized as mild normocytic normochromic type. The means of total leukocyte counts were 27.043, 57.940 and 40.139 céls/µL in M0, M24 and M48. A total of80% of the animals presented neutrophilic left shift in all moments. During medullar exams, the cellular, iron reserve and megakaryocytic concentration were raised as well as the ME ratio, showing a value of 26,3:1,0, probably due to the elevation of granular proliferation and maturation compartment, as the mean of the reserve compartment was within normal range. As 83% of the animals with neutrophilic left shift showed a melullary reserve compartment raised, it can be concluded that female dogs with piometra had left shift of neutrophils with disproportionally between compartments, without segmented medullar saturation.(AU)