Search

A 10-year-old neutered female domestic longhair cat was presented to a tertiary care veterinary hospital for evaluation of a right renal mass that was identified incidentally on abdominal radiographs and classified further as a sarcoma based on fine needle aspiration cytology. Further diagnostic workup, including ultrasound and cytology, identified a sarcoma in the left kidney. After approximately 1 month of conservative medical management, the clinical condition deteriorated and the cat was humanely destroyed. Post-mortem examination confirmed bilateral renal masses with multifocal infarction and extensive necrosis, and further identified a large mass at the apex of the heart as well as multiple pulmonary nodules. Microscopical examination of the masses identified a population of poorly-differentiated neoplastic spindle cells, consistent with sarcoma. Immunohistochemically, the neoplastic cells expressed smooth muscle actin and muscle-specific actin, but were negative for myoglobin and factor VIII. Phosphotungstic acid-haematoxylin staining was unable to identify cross-striations in the neoplastic cells. Based on these results and the pattern of lesion distribution, the cat was diagnosed with cardiac leiomyosarcoma with pulmonary and bilateral renal metastasis., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Cardiovascular risk factors, such as oxidative stress and elevated lipids, are linked to the development of cognitive impairment. A mediator common to both stressors is the apolipoprotein E (apoE). The objectives of this study are to determine the effects of apoE deficiency and diet-induced systemic oxidative stress in mice on vascular expression of inflammatory proteins and on cognitive function. Mice are placed on a diet enriched in homocysteine for fifteen weeks and then assessed for spatial learning using an eight-arm radial maze and for inflammatory protein expression by immunohistochemistry. Our results show that diet-induced oxidative stress does not affect cognitive function in normal mice. In contrast, apoE-/- mice on the homocysteine diet show significantly impaired (p<0. 001) maze performance. ApoE-/- mice also have high cholesterol levels. There is no expression of inflammatory proteins IL-6 and IL-8 in the vasculature of control mice on normal or homocysteine diet and little in apoE-/- mice on normal diet. In contrast, apoE-/- mice on homocysteine diet show pronounced vascular reactivity to IL-6 and IL-8 antibodies. These data show that systemic oxidative stress correlates with expression of inflammatory proteins in the cerebral vasculature and impaired cognitive function. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that an oxidative-inflammatory cycle in the cerebral vasculature could have deleterious consequences for cognition., (Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)