The aim of this paper is to report the occurrence of apoptosis in peripheral blood leukocytes and in syncytia induced by experimental infection of dogs with canine distemper virus. Blood was collected from nine puppies that were inoculated with the Snyder Hill strain of CDV, and stained with May Grunwaldt-Giemsa. Dogs were necropsied and retropharyngeal lymph nodes were collected and processed for paraffin embedding. Five micrometers thick sections were stained with hematoxylin-eosin and methyl green pyronin. Other sections were submitted to TUNEL reaction for in situ detection of apoptosis, and immunohistochemistry to detect CDV antigen. Immunohistochemistry confirmed the presence of viral antigen. Syncytia were present in all retropharyngeal lymph nodes. Several syncytia contained apoptotic nuclei as detected by hematoxylin-eosin and methyl green pyronin stains. Apoptotic nuclei were labeled inside syncytia by the TUNEL reaction. Blood smear analyses indicated higher proportion of apoptotic leukocytes in the peripheral blood of infected dogs.
dog; apoptosis; canine distemper virus
