The Thyroid Gland in Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) from the Texas Coast of the Gulf of Mexico: Normal Structure and Pathological Changes

Harbor Porpoise Thyroids: Histologic Investigations and Potential Interactions With Environmental Factors

“…The morphology of the harbor porpoise thyroid was similar to thyroid glands of other mammal species (Bloom and Fawcett, 1975;Jubb et al, 1993;Junqueira et al, 1995;Cowan and Tajima, 2006). Although the follicular lumina were shrunken in size because of fixation, on average they were larger than that of goat but seem to be smaller in comparison to larger ruminants (Shimokawa et al, 2002; Table 7).…”

“…Also, some connective tissue can be associated to the vascular tissue (Junqueira et al, 1995;Cowan and Tajima, 2006). In our study the connective tissue proportion varied widely (1-23%) in the thyroids of the harbor porpoises collected along the Belgian and British coasts and occupies an intermediate mean position of 10%.…”

Thyroid hormone concentrations in relation to age, sex, pregnancy, and perinatal loss in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)

“…Thyroid pathologies have also been observed in stranded bottlenose dolphins and appear similar to those observed in humans (Baloch and LiVolsi, 2002;Slovik, 2009) and terrestrial mammals (Dalefield and Palmer, 1994;Wakeling et al, 2007). Pathologies reported in dolphins (Cowan and Tajima, 2006) include hyperplastic nodules (8% of thyroid glands examined), adenomas (3%), colloid cysts (8%), and squamous cysts (15%). Despite the occurrence of these thyroid gland perturbations, clinical assessment of thyroid function is not typically performed in cetaceans under human care.…”

Renal Lesions in Cetaceans from Brazil

“…Because of their reniculate morphology and increased medullary thickness, the kidneys play a key role in salt excretion and water conservation (Hedges et al, 1979). In cetaceans and other marine mammals, pathological changes have been described in the lung (Gonzales-Viera et al, 2011;Venn-Watson et al, 2012), liver (Jaber et al, 2004), thyroid gland (Cowan and Tajima, 2006) and pituitary gland (Cowan et al, 2008), but there has been no specific study of renal pathology in these species.…”