Resistance of cattle of various genetic groups to the tick Rhipicephalus microplus and the relationship with coat traits

AbstractThis study evaluated the resistance of cattle of different genetic groups to the tick Rhipicephalus microplus and the relationship with traits of the animals’ hair and coat. Cows of the Senepol×Nelore (SN), Angus×Nelore (AN) and Nelore (NX) genetic groups were submitted to four consecutive artificial infestations, at 14-day intervals, each one with approximately 20,000 tick larvae placed on the animals’ lumbar region. From the 19th to 23rd day of each infestation five counts of the number of ticks were performed on each animal's left body side. The tick count data (TTC) were transformed into log10 (n+1), and also into percentage of return (PR), where n is the total number of ticks counted at each infestation. Hair samples were collected 24h after the last infestation with flat-nosed pliers. Measures of the average hair length (HL), coat thickness (CT), number of hairs per cm2 (NHCM2) and weight of the samples (SW) were obtained. Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated within genetic group to measure association between PR and the hair and coat data. There was a significant difference among genetic groups for the number of ticks, with the AN group having higher counts than the SN and NX groups. For the hair and coat traits, the NX and SN groups had lower values of HL and SW than did the AN group. The SN genetic group had lower NHCM2 counts than the NX and AN groups. There were positive correlations between TTC and CT (P<0.05) and SW (P<0.05) in the SN group. No significant correlation was found for the AN genetic group (P>0.05)

Does hepatocellular carcinoma in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis exist in cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patients?

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) has been associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) often arising in histologically advanced disease when steatohepatitis is not active (cryptogenic cirrhosis). Our objective was to characterize patients with HCC and active, histologically defined steatohepatitis. Among 394 patients with HCC detected by ultrasound imaging over 8 years and staged by the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) criteria, we identified 7 cases (1.7%) with HCC occurring in the setting of active biopsy-proven NASH. All were negative for other liver diseases such as hepatitis C, hepatitis B, autoimmune hepatitis, Wilson disease, and hemochromatosis. The patients (4 males and 3 females, age 63 ± 13 years) were either overweight (4) or obese (3); 57% were diabetic and 28.5% had dyslipidemia. Cirrhosis was present in 6 of 7 patients, but 1 patient had well-differentiated HCC in the setting of NASH without cirrhosis (fibrosis stage 1) based on repeated liver biopsies, the absence of portal hypertension by clinical and radiographic evaluations and by direct surgical inspection. Among the cirrhotic patients, 71.4% were clinically staged as Child A and 14.2% as Child B. Tumor size ranged from 1.0 to 5.2 cm and 5 of 7 patients were classified as early stage; 46% of all nodules were hyper-echoic and 57% were <3 cm. HCC was well differentiated in 1/6 and moderately differentiated in 5/6. Alpha-fetoprotein was <100 ng/mL in all patients. HCC in patients with active steatohepatitis is often multifocal, may precede clinically advanced disease and occurs without diagnostic levels of alpha-fetoprotein. Importantly, HCC may occur in NASH in the absence of cirrhosis. More aggressive screening of NASH patients may be warranted