Wobbly syndrome in an Africa pygmy hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris): neuropathological and immunohistochemical studies

• Autor(a) principal: Letícia Batelli de Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Matheus Vilardo Lóes Moreira, William H. M. Santos, Lislie Caroline Oliveira Stuart, Maria Dolors Pi Castro, Martí Pumarola Balle, Roselene Ecco
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFMG
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.1590/0103-8478cr20180742; http://hdl.handle.net/1843/67506; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9051-1565; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0173-3524; http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0122-7384; http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0935-7941; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8052-5389
• topic: Central nervous system; Degenerative disease; Myelopathy; Vacuolation; Histopathology; Sistema nervoso central; Doenças neurodegenerativas; Doenças da medula espinal; Histopatologia veterinaria

A three-year-old female African pygmy hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris), born and domiciled in Brazil, presented apathy, prostration, and difficulty to stay standing. Its parents were siblings but did not present clinical signs related to this condition. As its clinical condition worsened, the animal was euthanized and referred for necropsy. No gross lesions were found in the central nervous system (CNS). Histologically, there was vacuolation with axonal degeneration in the white matter of the CNS and in peripheral nervous tissue. The Kluver-Barrera (KB) stain confirmed demyelination in vacuolated areas. Immunohistochemistry using several neural markers confirmed astrocytosis and microgliosis associated with vacuolated areas. In addition, there was a mild decrease in the immuno intensity of myelin proteolipid protein (PLP) in these areas. These results suggest a genetic origin of the present demyelination, which resulted in the wobbly syndrome described in this report.