Presence of CD3+ and CD79a+ Lymphocytes in the Pituitary Gland of Dogs at Post-mortem Examination

Blomqvist, Marcus; Ley, Charles J.; Karlsson, Håkan K.R.; Hanson, Jeanette

doi:10.1016/j.jcpa.2020.02.010

Cited by 2 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Furthermore, lymphocytic hypophysitis has been associated with hypopituitarism, secondary hypoadrenocorticism, and impaired ACTH and cortisol production (7). It is also considered a probable cause of sudden death in dogs (2,3,6,9). Unfortunately, as this study was performed on animals admitted for necropsy, we were unable to perform hormonal measurements.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Lymphocytes in the pituitary gland have been described in dogs with concomitant diseases, such as multicentric lymphoma, osteoarthritis, nodular hyperplasia in the pars distalis, and pituitary adenoma. The composite cellular response, with a predominance of TCD3 + cells, may characterize subclinical lymphocytic hypophysitis (9). In humans, the cause of lymphocytic hypophysitis remains unknown, but based on the nature of the inflammation, T lymphocytes are crucial for the development of the disease, and therefore the hypothesis is that this disorder is of immune-mediated origin (4,(51)(52)(53).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These cells were not immunohistochemically characterized in our study. Similar to the evaluations performed in human hypophysitis, further studies are needed to understand the function of these cells in cases of lymphocytic hypophysitis ( 9 , 56 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies have reported primary or secondary hypophysitis promoting endocrine or neurological disorders in dogs; however, many limitations and divergences exist in the studies because it is considered a sporadic condition with the presence of inflammatory infiltrate comprising CD3 + T lymphocytes (2,3,(6)(7)(8)(9). Hypophysitis related to bacterial, fungal, viral, or parasitic infectious processes has been poorly studied, although studies in dogs (2,3), humans (10), and other animals (11) are available.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Lymphocytic hypophysitis in dogs infected with Leishmania spp.

Frigerio,

Guizelini,

Jussiani

et al. 2023

Front. Vet. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundMorphological involvement of endocrine glands, such as the pituitary gland, remain uninvestigated in dogs with canine visceral leishmaniasis. Therefore, this study investigated the presence of amastigotes of Leishmania spp. and characterized inflammatory changes, highlighting the involvement of TCD3+ lymphocytes in different regions of the pituitary gland of dogs.MethodsSamples were collected from 21 naturally infected dogs and 5 control, uninfected dogs. The different pituitary regions were analyzed in histological sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) under light microscopy. Inflammation was classified by intensity in a score from 0 to 3, absent (0), mild (1), moderate (2), and marked (3). The immunohistochemical (IHC) evaluation was performed in five high-power fields (hot spot) in a 40x objective of each region with manual counting (Image J1.52ª) of the TCD3+ lymphocytes and for amastigotes analyzed in 40x and 100x objectives. The Shapiro–Wilk test was used to assess the normality of the data. Differences between groups were determined by the Mann Whitney test. The correlation between variables was assessed by Sperman’s correlation test. p < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.ResultsAmastigotes from the pituitary glands of two infected dogs were identified using IHC. The histopathological evaluation stained with hematoxylin and eosin showed greater intensity of inflammation in the pars distalis and pars intermedia regions of infected dogs. IHC for TCD3+ lymphocytes showed a higher median number of immunolabeled cells in pars nervosa in the infected group than in the control group (p < 0.05); and expecting a variation in the distribution and number of these cells in naturally infected dogs, the median of the control group was considered a cut-off point, an increase in T lymphocytes (p < 0.05) was also observed in the pars intermedia and pars distalis of an infected subgroup (n = 10). A moderate significant correlation between the intensity of inflammation and the number of immunolabeled TCD3+ lymphocytes was established in the analyzed pituitary regions, characterizing the occurrence of hypophysitis.ConclusionThese findings presuppose that inflammation and/or the parasite in the pituitary region can result in gland dysfunction, worsening the clinical condition of the patient and compromising the efficiency of treatment and prognosis.

show abstract