Preliminary study of histological comparison on the growth patterns of long-bone cortex in young calf, pig, and sheep.

Some young large farm animals show a laminar bone formation in the long-bone cortex. Such a laminar bone is gradually replaced by Haversian bone with osteons during their growth periods. In this preliminary study, we observed the transverse ground samples of tibia cortex in young calves, pigs, and sheep by backscattered electron imaging. The cortex bones of all the newborn (NB) animals were basically formed with laminar bone structures. The NB and 1-month-old (1-M) calves had a typical concentric structure of laminar bone, whereas the NB and 1-M pigs showed a wire-netting bone with laminar-bone units. The NB sheep was similar to the calf rather than the pig. In the growth rate of bone volume, sheep was similar to calf up to 6 months after birth (6-M). Such calf and sheep showed a more rapid ratio of bone volume than pig. A few osteons had initially appeared in the innermost layer of the 6-M calf. A 1-year-old (1-Y) calf showed scattered osteons in the bone cortex, but many laminar-bone units were still retained in the outer layer. A 6-M pig had many osteons in the entire cortex but only a few osteons in the outermost layer. In the 6-M sheep, no osteons were observed, whereas a 1-Y sheep showed a relatively small number of osteons mainly in the middle layer but a higher osteon-volume than the 1-Y calf. In the 1-Y sheep, the more widely absorbed areas by bone-remodeling with osteons were observed as compared with the 1-Y calf, and the bone volume was decreased from the 6-M into the 1-Y sheep because of the remarkable bone-absorption. Thus, calf kept on possessing many laminar-bone units for a longer time in the growth period than sheep, while pig showed the earliest bone-remodeling with osteons. These results may be caused by their different body size and withers height in calf and sheep after growing and the difference of the dependence upon mother's body during juvenile period between pig and calf with sheep. The initial region of osteon formation may be distinguishable among their animals, respectively. However, further detailed investigations of their young animals at successive stages will be necessary.

Apolipoprotein C polymorphism in sheep: allele frequencies and association with plasma lipid and lipoprotein levels.

The genetic polymorphism of apolipoprotein C in normal plasma of four European sheep breeds (Suffolk, Corriedale, Cheviot, and Finn) was first detected using one-dimensional polyacrylamide gel isoelectric focusing (pH 2.5-5.0) followed by immunoblotting with antihuman apolipoprotein CII antibody. Six phenotypes (1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-1, 3-2, and 3-3) were identified in the 4.3-4.8 pH range, consisting of the combination of three isoform groups. On the basis of family and population data, these phenotypes were controlled autosomally by three codominant alleles, designated APOC*1, APOC*2, and APOC*3, the first being the most common allele. The frequency distributions of these alleles were similar between the Suffolk and Corriedale sheep, and between the Cheviot and Finn sheep. The former breeds had a significantly lower APOC*2 frequency than the latter breeds (P < 0.001). The mean plasma total-, HDL- and LDL-cholesterol levels of type 3-1 animals were significantly higher compared to type 1-1 animals in the Suffolk sheep (P < or = 0.04). However these differences were not seen in the Corriedale sheep.