THYMIC ABNORMALITIES AND GROWTH-HORMONE DEFICIENCY IN DOGS
- 1 January 1980
- journal article
- research article
- Vol. 41 (8) , 1256-1262
Abstract
A high frequency of occurrence of wasting disease, unthriftiness and retarded growth was observed in a group of inbred Weimaraner dogs. Affected pups had a small thymus gland, with a marked absence of thymic cortex. A litter of 8 pups from a sire and dam that were known to have produced affected offspring was chosen for further study. The pups had normal concentrations of white blood cells and .gamma.-globulins and were able to produce antibody in response to Brucella abortus. Two pups in the litter developed wasting syndrome and responded well to therapy with thymosin fraction 5. One pup that survived the wasting syndrome had a significant (P < 0.05) depression of its lymphocyte blastogenic response to phytohemagglutinin compared with its surviving littermates. Pups from this litter also lacked a normal increase in plasma growth hormone concentration after the injection of clonidine hydrochloride. These pups had concurrent abnormalities of the thymus-dependent immune function and in growth hormone metabolism. The syndrome in these pups has some features in common with the syndrome in the Ames or Snell-Bagg strains of immunodeficient dwarf mice.This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: