Page 1320 - Veterinary Immunology, 10th Edition

VetBooks.ir Immunodeficiencies of Cats

Hypotrichosis With Thymic Aplasia

The nude mouse has long been accepted as an important mouse
model of immunodeficiency. Nude mice are a strain of hairless mice
that fail to develop a functional thymus. This disease has been

described in rats, guinea pigs, and calves. A similar mutation has
been described in Birman kittens. These kittens were born without
any body hair (Fig. 39.12). On necropsy, they also had no thymus
and had depletion of lymphocytes in the paracortex of lymph
nodes, spleen, and Peyer's patches. Thus they were effectively T cell

deficient. Analysis of the pedigree suggested that the disease was
autosomal recessive.

FIG. 39.12 Kittens born with an autosomal recessive form of
congenital hypotrichosis with thymic aplasia-nude kittens. (From Casal
ML, Straumann U, Sigg C, et al: Congenital hypotrichosis with thymic aplasia in nine
Birman kittens, J Am Anim Hosp Assoc 30:600-602, 1994. Courtesy Dr. M.J. Casal.)

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