This study investigates what effect adding zinc to a final dietary concentration of 23.9 mg MJ−1 and/or linoleic acid to a dietary concentration of 3.6 g MJ−1 in a complete and balanced diet has on the skin and haircoat condition of adult dogs. All animals were fed for nine weeks on a standard diet followed by nine weeks on a supplemented diet. After each phase animals were quantitatively assessed with respect to the condition and function of their skin and coat. Dogs supplemented with the combination of zinc and linoleic acid showed a significant improvement in coat gloss (P = 0.05) and coat scale (P = 0.007) when compared to the control group of dogs receiving the standard diet. In addition dogs supplemented with either zinc alone or in combination with linoleic acid demonstrated a significant decrease (P = 0.05) in transepidermal water loss over the time course of the test phase. As far as we are aware this is the first reported research to show that supplementation of a complete and balanced commercial dog food with zinc plus linoleic acid can make significant and substantial enhancements of the skin and coat condition in dogs

No abstract

The HCA-7 cell line was established from a moderately well differentiated mucinous adenocarcinoma of the colon, which showed histological heterogeneity. This was reflected in the morphological heterogeneity in early passages of the HCA-7 cell line but diminished as the cells were passaged in vitro. Nine subpopulations were isolated from early passage cultures of the HCA-7 line and maintained as cell lines. Each subpopulation demonstrated a unique set of stable biological characteristics in vitro. When established in vivo, there was a wide variation in xenograft generation time. The parent cell line gave rise to six distinct xenograft patterns, two of which had been observed in the primary carcinoma. Individual subpopulations yielded characteristic tumours which were composed of between one and four organizational patterns. Xenografts differed in both the organization of cells and the cell differentiation within the different patterns. Mucous cells were absent from some tumours while abundant in others. The subpopulations isolated from the HCA-7 cell line provide a new and extensive model system for studying the generation and maintenance of phenotypic heterogeneity in colorectal carcinoma.

No abstract