Fatal hemothorax caused by pleural mesothelioma in a lion

Abstract

Mesothelioma is considered a malignant neoplasm caused by the proliferation of mesothelial cells mostly from the pleura, peritoneum and pericardium. Here we described a case of fatal hemothorax caused by pleural mesothelioma in a lion by means of necropsy, histopathology and immunohistochemistry. Gross inspection of the thoracic cavity showed hemothorax with about 4 liters of blood. Microscopically, numerous, randomly distributed, soft, red-pink, irregular masses with up to 1cm in diameter were observed in both visceral and parietal pleurae. Microscopically, a papillary structure pattern was observed in the thoracic masses, composed mainly by one layer of cubic mesothelial cells, which presented eosinophilic cytoplasm, central nucleus and evident nucleolus, supported by a low cellular fibrovascularstroma. Neoplastic cells were positive for both cytokeratin and vimentin by immunohistochemistry. This seems to be the first report of fatal hemothorax caused by pleural mesothelioma in a lion.

Mesotelioma Peritoneal Epitelioide Papilar Maligno Em Bovino Gir – Relato De Caso

“…Estudos experimentais induzindo a exposição de camundongos ao amianto reproduziram as características morfológicas e moleculares comuns ao mesotelioma maligno difuso humano (SAFFIOTTI, 2005;KANE, 2006;ROBINSON et al, 2014), entretanto, pouco se sabe a respeito dos fatores causais do desenvolvimento espontâneo do mesotelioma em animais domésticos e selvagens (WHITON et al, 2013;PELI et al, 2018;MATSUDA et al, 2019;ROCHA et al, 2019).…”