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- Author or Editor: William Craft x
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Abstract
Skin diseases are one of the most common problems seen in veterinary practices around the world. Many patients are presented with severe and/or chronic lesions, often refractory to treatment, and collection of skin biopsies is often beneficial to obtain or confirm a diagnosis and to help guide a management plan for patients. To obtain valuable information from skin biopsies, practitioners should follow recommended guidelines based on drug withdrawal and washout period, identification, and proper collection of skin lesions, which should be at different stages of progression, as well as include a thorough clinical history and differential list. These different steps taken prior to the submission of samples will often increase the chances of a more accurate diagnosis. Practitioners should also understand it may not always be possible for pathologists to provide a definitive diagnosis, but the information provided with skin biopsies can often be used to guide an appropriate treatment plan. This review will present general guidelines and suggestions to help obtain the most diagnostic skin samples for histopathological evaluation.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
To develop and assess a novel ex vivo corneal culture technique involving an agarose-based dome scaffold (ABDS) for use as a model of in vivo corneal wound healing in dogs and rabbits.
SAMPLE
Corneas from clinically normal dogs (paired corneas from 8 dogs and 8 single corneas) and rabbits (21 single corneas).
PROCEDURES
8 single dog corneas (DCs), 1 DC from each pair, and 10 rabbit corneas (RCs) were wounded with an excimer laser; 1 DC from each pair and 11 RCs remained unwounded. Corneas were cultured for 21 days on ABDSs (8 pairs of DCs and all RCs) or on flat-topped scaffolds (8 single DCs). The surface area of corneal fluorescein retention was measured every 6 (DCs) or 12 (RCs) hours until full corneal epithelialization was detected. Changes in corneal clarity were evaluated at 0, 7, 14, and 21 days.
RESULTS
Median time to full epithelialization for wounded dog and rabbit corneas was 48 and 60 hours, respectively; among wounded DCs, time to full epithelization did not differ by scaffold type. After 21 days of culture on ABDSs, all DCs and RCs that epithelialized developed a circular, diffuse, cloud-like pattern of optical haze, whereas DCs cultured on flat-topped scaffolds developed a focal, crater-like region of optical haze. All corneas on the ABDSs maintained convex curvature throughout the study.
CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Wounded ex vivo DCs and RCs cultured on ABDSs reliably epithelialized, formed optical haze (consistent with in vivo wound healing), and maintained convex curvature. This culture technique may be adaptable to other species.
