Immune Cell Populations within the Duodenal Mucosa of Dogs with Enteropathies

Abstract

The mucosal immune system may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of small intestinal enteropathies. The aim of the current study was to assess mucosal immune cell populations in dogs with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), idiopathic antibiotic-responsive diarrhea (ARD), and adverse reactions to food (FR). Endoscopic biopsies were performed of the duodenum of dogs with these conditions and from a group of dogs without enteric disease. Additional control samples were collected after death from other dogs that did not have evidence of enteric disease. Immunohistochemistry and computer-aided morphometry were used to assess the distribution of immune cell subsets in both lamina propria and intestinal epithelium. Compared with controls, dogs with ARD had increased numbers of lamina propria immunoglobulin (Ig) A plasma cells and CD4 cells. More marked alterations were noted in dogs with IBD, with significant increases in lamina propria IgG plasma cells, T cells (CD3), CD4 cells, mac-rophages, and neutrophils, but with reduced mast cell numbers. Increased intraepithelial CD3 T cells were also present in the dogs with IBD, compared with controls. However, lamina propria and epithelial populations were unaltered in dogs with FR when compared with controls. The altered mucosal immune cell populations observed in dogs with ARD or IBD may reflect an underlying immunologic pathogenesis in these disorders.

P-glycoprotein Expression in Lamina Propria Lymphocytes of Duodenal Biopsy Samples in Dogs with Chronic Idiopathic Enteropathies

“…However, neither the histological scoring of the biopsy samples nor the total lymphocyte counts per 10000 mm 2 differed between the two treatment groups. In addition, the total lymphocyte counts observed in the duodenal biopsy samples were comparable with those of other dogs with chronic enteropathies (German et al, 2001). It has been suggested that awareness of the type and degree of histological infiltrates in canine IBD may not be as helpful as in human IBD, in which clinical scores are closely related to histological grading (German et al, 2001, Willard et al, 2001.…”

Phenotyping, functional characterization, and developmental changes in canine intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes

“…A limited number of previous studies have investigated the distribution and quantification of IEL in the canine intestine. Most of these were descriptive studies using immunohistochemistry and did not include the simultaneous analysis of multiple lymphocyte markers [5][6][7][8]14]. In addition, intestinal tissue samples used in previous studies were collected from a variety of different breeds, which may have lead to a high inter-sample variability due to breed-related differences in the composition of IEL.…”

Cytokine mRNA abundance in intestinal biopsies from dogs with chronic diarrhea

“…The small and (or) large intestine can both be affected. Histopathological analyses of intestinal samples report increased infiltration of the lamina propria of the intestinal mucosa with eosinophils, lymphocytes, plasma cells and (or) neutrophils (German et al, 2001;Craven et al, 2004). However, histopathological reports are variable and do not necessarily correlate with the clinical presentation of the animals (Willard et al, 2002).…”