CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 46Parasitic Diseases Research and TreatmentHelminth infection and controlParasites and Host Interactions

Activity of pulmonary intravascular macrophages in cats and dogs with and without adult Dirofilaria immitis

Dillon, A.R., Warner, A.E., Brawner, W., Hudson, J., Tillson, M.·2008·Veterinary Parasitology
DOI 10.1016/j.vetpar.2008.09.004
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Pulmonary intravascular macrophages (PIMs), large (20-80 microm diameter) monocytes are present in sheep, pigs, and horses, but not in dogs, rats, rabbits, or primates. The present study evaluated the phagocytic activity of various organs in cats and dogs and determined the influence of Dirofilaria immitis infections on PIM activity. Live or dead adult heartworm (HW) was transplanted via jugular venotomy into cats and dogs. Cats (four per group) were allocated to five groups: surgical controls--no HW, dead HW for 1 week, live HW for 1 week, dead HW for 3 weeks, or live HW for 3 weeks. Radioactive technetium (Tc-99m, 1.2mCi in 0.3ml) sulfa-colloid was injected intravenously. All cats with HW were clinically asymptomatic and developed radiographic pulmonary parenchymal changes. No gross changes were visible at necropsy for cats with HW; inflammatory changes were less severe in cats with live HW. In cats with dead HW for 3 weeks, worms were present but folded, flattened, and located in distal pulmonary arteries. Uninfected control dogs and those with dead HW did not demonstrate any PIM activity. In control cats, lungs were the primary phagocytic organ after systemic IV colloid injection (72.5% of the total recovered radioactive dose). The lung and liver together represented over 95% of the recovered Tc-99m colloid in all cats. In each group of cats with HW, phagocytic activity of the lung was significantly less (p < 0.001) than the PIM activity of controls. Cats with dead HW at 1 week (50.1%) had a significant (p < 0.019) decrease in PIM activity compared with cats with dead HW at 3 weeks (59.5%). The PIM activity in cats with live HW was significantly decreased (p < 0.001) from that in groups with dead HW, but there was no significant difference between the two groups infected with live worms. There were no significant differences in recovery between any groups in pairwise analysis of the spleen, heart, skeletal muscle, kidney, bone marrow, or blood. Significant increases (p < 0.001) in liver activity for each group inversely reflected the decreased lung activity; consistent with increased hepatic uptake of Tc colloid "escaping" a relatively suppressed lung macrophage system. Transmission electron microscopy confirmed PIM glycocalyx changes and vacuolization, moderate Type 1 cell damage and Type II cell hypertrophy in cats with dead HW. There was no evidence of PIM death. The significant decrease in PIM activity in groups with dead HW and a greater decrease in groups with live HW are consistent with a down-regulation of PIM function in cats with live HW.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.vetpar.2008.09.004

Cites

11 of 11 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The sensitivity of antigen detection in infected cats is low, because these hosts generally harbor a low number of adult worms, or because symptoms occur when the parasites are in larval stages.

    “It is known that the sensitivity of the detection of antigens in infected cats is low, because these hosts generally harbor a low number of adult worms, or because the symptoms produced by their presence occur when the parasites are in larval stages (20–22).”

    From Seroprevalence of Feline Heartworm in Spain: Completing the Epidemiological Puzzle of a Neglected Disease in the Cat (2022) · cites this paper as [21]

  • Pulmonary arterial disease associated with exposure to D immitis is considered more severe in cats compared with dogs due to the increased activity of pulmonary intravascular macrophages in cats.

    “Pulmonary arterial disease, associated with exposure to D immitis, is considered more severe in cats compared with dogs due to the increased activity of pulmonary intravascular macrophages in cats.”

    From Dirofilarioses in cats: European guidelines from the ABCD on prevention and management (2020) · cites this paper as [30]

  • In cats, intravascular pulmonary macrophages are downregulated with live worms and upregulated with dead worms, linking Wolbachia antigen release to proinflammatory macrophages.

    “the downregulation of intravascular pulmonary macrophages in cats with live worms, in contrast to the upregulation of macrophages in those with dead worms, link the release of Wolbachia antigens to the presence of proinflammatory macrophages (118).”

    From Human and animal dirofilariasis: The emergence of a zoonotic mosaic (2012) · cites this paper as [118]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 12 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Dillon, A. R., Warner, A. E., Brawner, W., Hudson, J., & Tillson, M.
Affiliations
  • Auburn University (US)
  • Tufts University (US)
Corresponding author
Dillon, A.R.
Venue
Veterinary Parasitology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2008-12
Volume
158
Issue
3
Pages
171-176
ISSN
0304-4017 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.vetpar.2008.09.004
OpenAlex
W1983111518
Cited by
46
References
12
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
FWCI
1.29
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Veterinary Parasitology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Parasitic Diseases Research and Treatment
  • Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Helminth infection and control
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Parasitology › Parasites and Host Interactions
Keywords
pulmonary intravascular macrophages, Dirofilaria immitis, heartworm infection, phagocytic activity, technetium-99m colloid, cats, dogs, hepatic uptake, monocytes, feline heartworm disease, canine heartworm disease
MeSH terms
Animals, Cat Diseases, Cats, Dirofilaria immitis, Dirofilariasis, Dog Diseases, Dogs, Lung, Microvilli, Organ Specificity, Pulmonary Artery, Random Allocation, Macrophages, Alveolar, Microscopy, Electron, Transmission

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review