Acta Vet. Brno 2021, 90: 221-223

https://doi.org/10.2754/avb202190020221

B-cell lymphoblastic leukaemia in a guinea-pig – a case report

Martin Levkut1, Peter Major2, Lucia Kottferová2, Mikuláš Levkut1,3

1University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy, Department of Morphological Disciplines, Košice, Slovakia
2University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy, Clinic of Birds, Exotic and Free-living Animals, Košice, Slovakia
3Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Neuroimmunology, Bratislava, Slovakia

Received December 24, 2020
Accepted May 26, 2021

In this case report, lymphoblastic leukaemia is described in a five-year-old female guinea pig. Clinical examination revealed lymphadenopathy, mainly with increased size of the popliteal lymph nodes. Lymphoblast cells were determined haematologically. Postmortem findings were hepatomegaly and splenomegaly. Histopathological examination of liver, spleen and lymph nodes revealed tumour cells of lymphoblastic type. These cells showed considerable cellular pleomorphism. The protein markers CD3 and CD20 and paired box 5 (PAX5) transcription factor were traced immunohistochemically. Immunophenotypization using PAX5 showed nuclear positivity of this marker, but CD3 and CD20 (not interspecies cross-reactivity for guinea pig) demonstrated no positive reaction in the tumour cells. CD3-positive cells were found only in guinea pig tissue sections used as control. PAX5 in guinea pigs appears as a beneficial and preferred marker for B-cell derived tumours.

Funding

This work was supported by the Grant Agency for Science of the Slovak Republic VEGA 1/0355/19, 1/0107/21 and the Slovak Research and Developmental Agency APVV-15-0165. We are thankful to T. Torday, Medicyt, s.r.o. for technical assistance in immunohistochemistry of samples.

References

13 live references

Open full article