Wasting marmoset syndrome is a malabsorption process similar to celiac disease: clinical and pathology characterization

Author(s)

Lilian Rose Marques de Sá

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ/SBD)
• Defense date: 2004-08-09

Examining board members

Maria Irma Seixas Duarte; José Luiz Catão Dias; Mario Mariano; Alcides Pissinatti; Aytan Miranda Sipahi

• Advisor: Maria Irma Seixas Duarte

Abstract

Wasting marmoset syndrome (WMS) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality of marmosets and tamarins kept in captivity. The etiology of this syndrome has not been established and its main features are progressive weight loss, diarrhea, colitis, anemia, hind limb paralysis, and alopecia. The aims of this research were to demonstrate that WMS is a malabsorption process, and to analyze the underlying histological lesion of the intestine and to characterize the local immune response of the small intestine. The sick marmosets (n=40) were compared to live normal controls (n=9) or to necropsied marmosets that died of other diseases than WMS (n=8), regarding clinical follow up, fecal analysis, D-xylose absorption test, evaluation of the nutritional composition and digestibility of the diet, gross and histological examination and morphometric approach of the jejune of wasters and control marmosets. These data revealed general features of WMS under our general captivity conditions, major and minor clinical signs of waster marmosets, impaired absorptive and digestive function of small intestine with steatorrhea and atrophic enteritis similar to celiac disease. The clinical and laboratory data associated with pathology examination demonstrated that WMS is a malabsorption process due to loss of absorptive surface area that results in progressive secondary malnutrition of the waster marmosets. The major immunologic mechanism underlying the celiac-like enteritis of WMS is a T-cell immune mediated response that affects intestine architecture (AU)