Histopathologic and immunohistochemical lesions in liver of mink infected with Aleutian disease virus

Abstract

Parvovirus of Aleutian disease causes mainly damage to kidneys, but immune complexes deposition and damage may occur also in other organs. In mink farms of Latvia the liver dystrophy or hepatic lipidosis of mink is widely distributed. The goal of this study was to examine probability of liver damage and regeneration of mink infected with Aleutian disease virus. Liver injury was assessed histologically. The mink liver demonstrated inflammation of liver parenchyma and foci of fatty liver. In immunohistochemistry, during liver regeneration the matrix metalloproteinases MMP-9, vascular endothelial growth factor and β-defensin 2 expressions were lower, but MMP-2 and nerve growth factor receptor p75 expression was increased.

Progression of experimental chronic Aleutian mink disease virus infection

“…The AMDV associated histopathology seen in the present study corresponds to that seen by others [ 14 – 16 , 28 , 29 ]. No pathognomonic lesions exist for AD, but infiltration of mononuclear cells in several organs raises a strong suspicion of AD.…”

“…The gross pathology observed in this study was similar regardless of how long time after AMDV inoculation the mink were euthanized with exception of: (1) the white sprinkle hairs that was observed only 24 weeks after AMDV inoculation, and (2) the kidney lesions were not observed until 2 months after AMDV inoculation. In general, few pathological changes are observed in chronic AMDV infected mink [ 14 ], which might represents the unspecific symptoms observed.…”

“…In juvenile mink, AMDV infection may cause acute pneumonia with high mortality [ 9 – 11 ]. In adult mink, one or more of the following conditions can occur as acute though mainly chronic lesions: glomerulonephritis [ 5 , 12 ], arteritis [ 13 ], hepatitis [ 14 ] and meningoencephalitis [ 15 , 16 ]. In naïve mink, acute pneumonia [ 9 – 11 ] and facial swelling (unpublished observations, the authors) can be the predominant clinical sign of all age groups.…”

Serum Analytes of American Mink (Neovison Vison) Challenged with Aleutian Mink Disease Virus

“…In another study in AMDV infected mink, no association was detected between the degree of liver damage and ALT activity [ 87 ], but ALT activity is elevated in the plasma of mink with high incidence of hepatic fatty infiltration [ 45 , 60 ]. The overall mean ALT in the current study (121.9 U/L) was lower than the 145.8 U/L in AMDV infected mink reported previously [ 80 ]. The reported means of ALT activity in non-infected mink were highly variable, showing a five-fold difference (68.8 to 385 U/L) across 12 reports.…”

“…Although the liver is capable of regenerating its damaged cells [ 80 ], the severity of liver damage by AMDV infection is comparable to [ 11 ] or sometimes more extreme than that [ 14 , 81 ] which occurs in the kidneys. Genes that modulate liver regeneration were found to have been under selection for tolerance to AMDV infection in the same population which is used in the current study [ 82 ].…”