2016 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program

Spinal cord tissue was collected post-mortem from client-owned dogs donated to the University of Missouri for research purposes. Lumbar spinal cord microglia analyses were conducted with immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy. To identify microglia in close proximity to motor neurons (MNs), concentric circles with increasing radii of 6 lM were applied to MNs of DMaffected dogs at each disease stage (stage 1 n = 120; stage 2 n = 118; late DM (3&4) n = 149) and age-matched control dogs (n = 145). Cells with positive immunoreactivity for Iba-1/iNOS (M1 microglia), or Iba-1/arginase-1 (M2 microglia), were quantified in a double-blind manner. Data were analyzed via Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA on ranks with post-hoc Dunn's method. Fractalkine total protein was quantified via western blot analysis of lumbar spinal cord from DM-affected dogs (stage 1 n = 2; stage 2 n = 4; late DM n = 3) and age-matched control dogs (n = 3). Relative optical densities were normalized to control dogs. Data were analyzed via ANOVA with post-hoc Holm-Sidak method.