UC Davis Pathologists Make Impact at 2024 ACVP Annual Meeting
Drs. Pedro Ruivo, Marietta Barro, Polly Chen, Javier Zarrate and Denise Imai-Leonard attended the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists in Seattle, WA.
Dr. Marietta Barro presented her work on understanding IgM nephropathy in athymic nude mice. She presented the histomorphologic, histochemical, immunophenotypic and ultrastructural features of the hyaline glomerulopathy that defines this disease as an IgM nephropathy. She proposed that this spontaneous disease in athymic nude mice could be a valuable model for the human condition. Her data suggested that biosecurity level, pathogen status, and microbial diversity were not associated with development of disease and surprisingly, suggested that concurrent inflammatory and neoplastic disease was protective with dermatitis, typhlocolitis and lymphoma being associated with a lower prevalence of nephropathy. She shared a grading scheme that she developed to interrogate differences in nephropathy between groups.
In the Diagnostic session, Dr. Chen discussed her diagnostic rationale for Lymph node lipomatosis in C57Bl/6 mice. She shared the gross and histologic features and the pattern of immunophenotyping signal for CD3, CD19, Smooth muscle actin and CD31 that are necessary for the diagnosis. Her literature review and research into terminology and pathogenesis determined that the nodal adipose tissue causing the mass effect may occur due to transdifferentiation of medullary stromal mesenchymal cells. Thus, she concluded that, rather than fatty infiltration, lipomatosis was the more appropriate diagnostic term to utilize as it best reflected the underlying pathogenesis of the nodal mass.
Together with the School of Veterinary Medicine and the California National Primate Research Center, the team responded to interest and fielded questions about the UC Davis residency and fellowship training programs in Laboratory animal pathology at the Veterinary Student and Resident Forum. Dr. Imai-Leonard reflected on the value of ACVP attendance and committee service in an interview for the ACVP conference podcast. On Monday night, Dr. Imai-Leonard hosted a well-attended reception for UC Davis Alumni & Friends at Hatch Cantina. Fundraising efforts were in full swing for the Peter C. Kennedy Fund with Dr. Kevin Woolard, faculty lead for the Anatomic Pathology residency, inspiring the crowd to donate. The fund supports graduate students studying spontaneous diseases of veterinary species. Generous donors were entered into a drawing for prizes. Dr. Patty Gaffney won the grand prize of a dinner, hosted by Dr. Patty Pesavento and Dr. Bill Vernau.