Effect of various biological factors on spontaneous marmoset and tamarin colitis. A retrospective histopathologic study.

Histological sections of colons from 69 tamarins (46 Saguinus oedipus and 23 Saguinus fuscicollis illigeri) and 27 marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) that died between 1979 and 1984 were examined for colitis. Evaluated biological factors were species, age at death, source of animals, manner of death, presence of colon cancer, and time after importation. Most normal colons were found in young animals (dead at less than 1 years of age). Nearly all (approximately 96%) animals had colitis; 70-80% of most groups were graded as chronic colitis. Usually, one grade adequately described the condition of the entire colon. The strongest observed correlation of factors (P less than 0.05) was between acute colitis and colon cancer in S. oedipus. A higher percentage of S. oedipus had acute colitis than did the other two species. When colitis incidence data were adjusted for S. oedipus with colon cancer, there were no observed species differences between colons of colony-born and imported animals nor between those that died naturally and those that were euthanized. In an additional group of 18 S. oedipus that were imported in 1975, acute colitis was found in 60% of those dying immediately after importation (less than 1 year of colony age) and those that survived greater than 3 years. At this time, no causative agent has been identified in marmoset colitis.

Histology of colon cancer in Saguinus oedipus oedipus.

Diagnosis of colon cancer in tamarins often requires histologic (microscopic) inspection of the entire colon before minute primary sites can be located in the flat colonic mucosa. In other cases the cancer is easily recognized grossly because infiltration produces local desmoplastic reactions. The cancer does not have a preceding benign polypoid stage. The carcinoma is most typically poorly differentiated. The PAS stain, however, demonstrates that some of the malignant cells always produce mucin. With other special stains and electron microscopy, undifferentiated stem cells, mitochondria-rich absorptive cells, and cells rich in argentaffin granules are demonstrated. Most commonly the carcinomatous cells are distributed in structureless masses, but occasionally they form tubular structures that resemble glands. Preneoplastic epithelial changes in the crypts are disguised by epithelial hyperplastic (reparative) changes without hyperchromatic nuclear changes. Nuclear pleomorphism and enlarged nuclear/cytoplasmic ratios are commonplace in nonmalignant as well as malignant cells. All colon cancers found in this species arise in association with a pre-existing, chronic ulcerating colitis.

Spontaneous colonic adenocarcinoma in marmosets.

We find that colonic adenocarcinoma, which is an extremely rare neoplasm of all animals except man and carcinogen-treated rodents, occurs spontaneously in some marmosets. The cotton-topped Saguinus oedipus oedipus is particularly prone to develop it, but we have found it also at necropsy in Callimico goeldii (Goeldi's marmoset). Numerous metastases to regional lymph nodes develop. The cancers arise de novo in the mucosa and early invade the submucosa and lymphatic apparatus and paracolonic lymph nodes. These findings and the continuing occurrence of this cancer in our colony suggests that the marmoset may be the long-sought primate model for experimental intestinal carcinogenesis.

The effects of cosmic particle radiation on pocket mice aboard Apollo XVII: appendix III. evaluation of viscera and other tissues.

Histopathological findings in the lungs, livers, bone marrows, small intestines, gonads, kidneys, and other tissues of the four pocket mice (Perognathus longimembris) that survived the Apollo XVII flight were evaluated in the light of their immediate environment and as targest of HZE cosmic ray particles. Results of this study failed to disclose changes that could be ascribed to the HZE particle radiation. Decreased numbers of erythropoietic cells in the bone marrow of the flight mice were probably related to the increased oxygen pressure. The small intestine showed no changes. Ovaries and tests appeared normal. Two of the three surviving male flight mice displayed early stages of spermatogenesis, just as ground-based controls did at the same season. Abnormalities were also not found in the thyroid, parathyroids, adrenals, or kidneys. The status of the juxtaglomerular apparatus could not be evaluated. The lungs exhibited nonspecific slight rections. A variety of incidental lesions were noted in the livers of both the flight mice and their controls. The heart muscle showed nothing that could be regarded as pathological. Sections of skeletal muscle examined were free from significant change.