Cushing’s Disease in Dogs and Humans

Abstract

Background: Cushing’s disease (CD) is a common endocrinological disorder in dogs with an estimated incidence of 1 to 2 cases/1,000 dogs/year. This is in contrast to humans in whom CD is rare. The clinical presentation of CD, however, is highly similar between dogs and humans, with characteristic signs, such as abdominal obesity, weight gain, fatigue, muscle atrophy and skin changes. Canine CD may therefore serve as an animal model for human CD, especially since therapeutic canine hypophysectomy can generate substantial amounts of primary corticotroph adenoma tissue for in vitro research purposes. In a recent study, we found that dopamine (DA) D₂ and somatostatin (SS) receptor subtypes are well expressed in canine corticotroph adenomas, but there are some distinct differences compared with the expression profile observed in human CD. These differences need to be considered when using canine CD as a model to evaluate the efficacy of novel DA/SS compounds for potential use in human CD. Case Report: This case involves an 8-year-old female dog that developed signs of exercise intolerance, muscle weakness and polyuria/polydipsia due to an adrenocorticotropic hormone-secreting pituitary adenoma. The dog underwent curative transsphenoidal hypophysectomy and has remained in complete remission in the 3.5 years since surgery.

The companion dog as a model for human aging and mortality

“…For example, unlike mice, companion dogs experience a diversity of spontaneously occurring diseases similar to those of humans, such as age‐related neurologic disease (Head, 2011), renal disease (Cianciolo, Benali & Aresu, 2016), endocrine disease (e.g., De Bruin et al., 2009; Fall, Hamlin, Hedhammar, Kampe & Egenvall, 2007), and also experience obesity and its attendant risks (German, Ryan, German, Wood & Trayhurn, 2010). These phenomena allow researchers not only to study the pathologies that influence mortality, but also to understand different comorbidities and multiple chronic conditions that canines exhibit.…”

Role of matrix Metalloproteinases in pituitary adenoma invasion

“…1). We think that there may be following reasons: (i) There have been cushing's disease dogs and prolactinoma rats used for imaging, surgery and drug studies [56][57][58]. However, animal models of different PA subtypes have not been stably established [58,59], and alternative PA cell lines are easily affected by experimental conditions.…”

Pituitary-dependent hyperadrenocorticism in a terrier dog: A case report

“…Hyperadrenocorticism (HAC), or Cushing's syndrome, is an endocrinological disorder resulted from chronic exposure to excessive concentrations of glucocorticoids [1][2][3]. There are three types of Cushing's syndrome that can be iatrogenic or spontaneous [4].…”

“…HAC occurs commonly in middleaged dogs, but it's rare in cats [1,6]. Any breed of dogs can develop HAC, but poodles, dachshunds and small terriers have the highest prevalence of PDH [3,4].…”