Marie-Odile Benoit-Biancamano

Université de Montréal | UdeM · Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

Beekeeping plays a crucial role in biodiversity, pollination, commercial farming, and the worldwide agricultural economy. Histopathology, which is an important tool for the investigation of diseases in vertebrates, is not commonly used in honey bees (Apis mellifera). However, histopathology could potentially help the diagnostic investigation of hig...

Normative standards for healthy animal structures have been established by optical coherence tomography (OCT). OCT has been used in animal studies to characterize more precisely ocular lesions, identify the origin of the affected layer, and eventually provide a curative treatment. To acquire a high image resolution, several challenges must be overc...

A 22‐year‐old pony mare was presented at the Equine Hospital of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine with a pedunculated exuberant granulation tissue (EGT) located at the lateral bulbar conjunctiva of the right eye. The granulation tissue, diagnosed by histology, grew over three and a half weeks after a superior and inferior Gundersen inlay flap proc...

Background: Despite their popularity, hematology reference intervals (RIs) have not been established in big-bellied seahorses (Hippocampus abdominalis). Objective: The objectives of this study were to establish hematologic RIs to compare values between sex in regard to cytochemical staining of blood cells. We also sought to compare white blood c...

The European honeybee contributes to the agriculture by its pollination; however, the overwintering loss rate over the last decades is worrisome. Varroa destructor is considered one of the most important causes of bee colony declines. This project aims to correlate the infestation by varroa to the hemolymph sugar concentrations and bacterial and vi...

This case series describes the clinical appearance, histopathological findings and therapeutic trials of proliferative nodular lesions on bilateral ear margins of three domestic cats including two littermates. All therapeutic trials were unsuccessful. While the aetiology remains unclear, this report highlights different hypotheses in presenting thi...

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are ubiquitous in the environment, which is of concern since they are broadly toxic for wildlife and human health. It is generally accepted that maternal prenatal folic acid supplementation (FA) may beneficially impact offspring development, but it has been recently shown that the father's exposures also influen...

Glucose and trehalose are the main energy sources used by honeybees ( Apis mellifera) for daily activities. However, there is no validated point-of-care method to reliably measure both sugars. We performed an analytical validation of a portable human glucometer (Accu-Chek; Roche) for glucose measurement in honeybee hemolymph compared to a reference...

The emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial pathogens in farm animals and their zoonotic spread is a concern to both animal agriculture and public health. Apart from antimicrobial resistance (AMR), bacterial pathogens from the genera of Salmonella and Staphylococcus take refuge inside host cells, thereby demanding intervention strategies t...

The objective of this study was to describe the histological and histochemical characteristics of the lacrimal glands of beluga whales. The study was carried out on the formalin-fixed ocular globes from 96 carcasses of beluga whales found stranded in the St. Lawrence estuary in Quebec, Canada. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained slides from the eye...

Emerging viral diseases include pathogens that can threaten the health of the Canadian swineherd. Anelloviruses and Circoviruses comprise of pathogens with veterinary significance. The aim of this study was to determine the genomic organization and phylogenetic relationships of Torque teno sus virus (TTsusV) and Porcine circovirus (PCV) from Canadi...

Clinical Pathology Focused Scientific Session II Background Glucose and trehalose are the main energy sources in honeybees (Apis mellifera) for daily activities. Portable glucometer can compensate for large volume samples and high costs required from standard methods. Objective The primary aim of this study was to perform an analytical validation...

Nerves can be severely reshaped in human pancreatic diseases such as chronic pancreatitis (CP) and pancreatic cancer, in which pancreatic nerves can undergo hypertrophy or hyperplasia. This neural plasticity is associated with neuropathic pain. Although there are several animal models of CP, pancreatic neuropathy is not well-characterized. Thus, th...

Measurement of sugars in hemolymph (glucose and trehalose) helps to evaluate physiological status and homeostasis of honeybees (Apis mellifera). Several expensive analytic methods have been used to research. Alternatively, portable glucometer could be a suitable method for beekeepers and researchers. This study aims to validate the accuracy and imp...

El estesioneuroblastoma o neuroblastoma olfatorio es un tumor de carácter maligno y se deriva del neuroepitelio olfatorio, poco frecuente en especies domésticas y en particular en equinos. El presente reporte corresponde a un paciente equino de 13 años que presentó enfermedad respiratoria crónica con dos años de evolución y en cuyo periodo desarrol...

Esthesioneuroblastoma or olfactory neuroblastoma is a malignant tumor and is derived from the olfactory neuroepithelium, rare in domestic species and particularly in equines. The present report corresponds to a 13-year-old equine patient who presented chronic respiratory disease with two years of evolution and in which period developed unilateral p...

Pigs are considered one of the relevant animal models for ocular research as they share several histological and anatomical similarities with the human eye. With the increasing interest in juvenile animal models, this study aimed to describe the postnatal development of ocular structures in 16 Göttingen minipigs and 25 F2 domestic pigs, between bir...

It has recently been shown that the loss of the Hippo signaling effectors Yes-associated protein (YAP) and transcriptional coactivator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ) in adrenocortical steroidogenic cells impairs the postnatal maintenance of the adrenal gland. To further explore the role of Hippo signaling in mouse adrenocortical cells, we conditional...

A captive, adult female Brent goose ( Branta bernicla) with a history of severe feather picking by its mate, was presented with 0.5–2.5 cm skin nodules on the head and neck. Histologic examination revealed a well-delineated dermal mass that surrounded an intact feather follicle and was composed of lakes of proteinaceous fluid and fibrin with scatte...

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) can induce epigenetic changes in the paternal germline. Here, we report that folic acid (FA) supplementation mitigates sperm miRNA profiles transgenerationally following in utero paternal exposure to POPs in a rat model. Pregnant founder dams were exposed to an environmentally relevant POPs mixture (or corn oil)...

Streptococcus suis is an important porcine bacterial pathogen and zoonotic agent responsible for sudden death, septic shock and meningitis. These pathologies are a consequence of elevated bacterial replication leading to exacerbated and uncontrolled inflammation, a hallmark of the S. suis systemic and central nervous system (CNS) infections. Monocy...

Streptococcus suis serotype 2 is an important porcine bacterial pathogen and a zoonotic agent responsible for sudden death, septic shock and meningitis, with exacerbated inflammation being a hallmark of the systemic and central nervous system (CNS) infections. However, S. suis serotype 2 strains are genetically and phenotypically heterogeneous, bei...

The paternal environment is thought to influence sperm quality and future progeny may also be impacted. We hypothesized that prenatal exposure to environmentally-relevant contaminants impairs male reproduction, altering embryo gene expression over multiple generations. Folic acid (FA) can improve sperm quality and pregnancy outcomes, thus we furthe...

Introduction The Rat Grimace Scale (RGS), a facial expression scale, quantifies the affective component of pain in rats. The RGS was developed to identify acute and inflammatory pain, and applicability in acute and chronic visceral pain is unknown. The dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) colitis model is commonly used in rats, but pain is rarely assessed,...

Histological examination of the rat placenta and fetus is uncommon. Toxicological studies mainly rely on gross examination of the fetus and on fetal and placental weights. These are often insufficient to assess the fetal and placental toxicity of xenobiotics. The small size of the fetus makes its dissection labor-intensive. Thus, our objective was...

As in many altricial species, rats are born with fused eyelids and markedly underdeveloped eyes. While the normal histology of the eyes of mature rats is known, the histomorphological changes occurring during postnatal eye development in this species remain incompletely characterized. This study was conducted to describe the postnatal development o...

A subcutaneous mass on the right pelvic limb of an 11-year-old neutered male golden retriever dog was surgically excised. A hemangiosarcoma included within an intermuscular lipoma was diagnosed upon histopathological examination. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first case report of this nature in a dog. Résumé — Hémangiosarcome dans un lipo...

In this review paper, literature data on pre- and postnatal eye development are compared between humans and nonclinical species that are commonly used for human safety assessment, namely, mouse, rat, rabbit, dog, minipig, and nonhuman primates. Some new data on rat and minipig ocular development are also included. This compiled information can be h...

The presence of lesions on the pig carcass is an indicator of poor animal welfare and has economic impact as it downgrades the carcass value. The assessment of the age of lesions on the carcass may help identify risk factors and ultimately prevent their occurrence. The aim of this study was to assess the age of lesions on pig carcasses through spec...

The pathogenesis of Streptococcus suis infection, a major swine and human pathogen, is only partially understood and knowledge on the host adaptive immune response is critically scarce. Yet, S. suis virulence factors, particularly its capsular polysaccharide (CPS), enable this bacterium to modulate dendritic cell (DC) functions and potentially impa...

UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) superfamily are glycoproteins resident of the endoplasmic reticulum membranes that undergo post-translational modifications (PTM). UGT2B7 is of particular interest because of its action on a wide variety of drugs. Most studies currently survey common variants and are only examining a small fraction of the genetic d...

Multilocus sequence typing previously identified three predominant sequence types (STs) of Streptococcus suis serotype 2: ST1 strains predominate in Eurasia while North American (NA) strains are generally ST25 and ST28. However, ST25/ST28 and ST1 strains have also been isolated in Asia and NA, respectively. Using a well-standardized mouse model of...

Vaccination is a useful option to control infection with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), and several modified live-PRRSV vaccines have been developed. These vaccines have shown some efficacy in reducing the incidence and severity of clinical disease as well as the duration of viremia and virus shedding but have failed t...

A cutaneous mass was surgically excised in a 4-year-old African pygmy hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris). A squamous cell carcinoma was diagnosed based on histopathological examination and local recurrence following excision is strongly suspected. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first well-documented report of a cutaneous squamous cell carcinom...

Islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) has been shown to form amyloid deposits in pancreatic islets, thereby furthering type 2 diabetes disease progression. Further discovery of new molecules is needed to create a diverse set of molecules that impede pancreatic amyloidosis. We have recently designed and synthesized N-phenyl-N'-(2-ethyl)ureas (EU) that ar...

Amyloid can be detected in the islets of Langerhans in a majority of type 2 diabetic patients. These deposits have been associated with β-cell death, thereby furthering diabetes progression. Islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) amyloidogenicity is quite variable among animal species, and studying this variability could further our understanding of the...

Alopecia X in dogs is a noninflammatory alopecia that may be caused by a hormonal dysfunction. It may be similar to androgenic alopecia in men that is caused by the effect of dihydrotestosterone (DHT). The 5α-reductase isoenzymes, 5αR1 and 5αR2, and a recently described 5αR3, are responsible for the conversion of testosterone into DHT. However, whi...

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) constitute an important pharmacotherapeutic class which, over the past decade, have expanded in application to a panoply of medical conditions. They have been tested for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s to reduce the inflammation and also in the attempt to abrogate amyloid deposition. How...

Deposition of islet amyloid has been associated with beta-cell death, thereby furthering diabetes progression. Several hypoglycemic agents, such as thiazolidinediones, biguanide and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, have been known to preserve beta-cell mass, possibly by direct inhibition of islet amyloid formation. The general objective of this s...

The biologic attributes of the endocrine pancreas and the comparative endocrinology of islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) of fish are not well described in the literature. This study describes the endocrine pancreas of one teleostean fish. Ten captive Atlantic wolffish (Anarhichas lupus) from the Montreal Biodome were submitted for necropsy and their...

Herein, we report a 25-year-old male polar bear suffering from a pancreatic islet cell tumor. The aim of this report is to present a case of this rare tumor in a captive polar bear. The implication of potential risk factors such as high carbohydrate diet or the presence of amyloid fibril deposits was assessed. Necropsy examination revealed several...

Objective: Our research program has focused on the development of promising, soft alkylating N-phenyl-N'-(2-chloroethyl)urea (CEU) compounds which acylate the glutamic acid-198 of β-tubulin, near the binding site of colchicum alkaloids. CEUs inhibit the motility of cancerous cells in vitro and, interestingly, exhibit antiangiogenic and anticancer a...

Diabetes in the domestic ferret (Mustela putorius furo) has previously been described and the purpose of this study was to evaluate if the ferret could serve as a model for the study of β-cell degeneration associated with formation of islet amyloid. The nucleotide and amino acid sequence of ferret islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) 1-37 was identifie...

To assess the contribution of polymorphisms in the uridine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase gene (UGT) and the multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 gene (ABCC2) to mycophenolic acid (MPA) pharmacokinetics and clinical outcomes in thoracic transplant recipients. Open-label, cross-sectional study. Transplant clinic in Vancouver, British Colum...

UGT1A4 is primarily expressed in the liver and exhibits catalytic activities for various drugs. Amongst the few UGT1A4 polymorphisms evaluated, studies support the alteration of UGT1A4-mediated glucuronidation by a few variations including the Pro²⁴Thr and Leu⁴⁸Val variants (referred to as UGT1A4*2 and *3). We therefore investigated genetic mechani...

Purpose: Mycophenolic acid (MPA) is the active moiety of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), an immunosuppressant commonly used in transplantation. Metabolism of MPA to the phenolic (MPAG) and acyl (AcMPAG) glucuronides is mediated by UDP-glucuronosyltransferase enzymes (UGTs); multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (MRP2/ABCC2) is also involved in dis...

Purpose: Mycophenolic acid (MPA), the active metabolite of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), is known for its wide inter-patient variability in pharmacokinetics. Metabolism of MPA to the phenolic (MPAG) and acyl (AcMPAG) glucuronides is mediated by UGT enzymes, and multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (MRP2/ABCC2) is also involved in their disposit...

Fenofibric acid (FA), the active moiety of fenofibrate, is an agonist of the peroxisome proliferator-activated nuclear receptor alpha that modulates triglyceride and cholesterol profiles. Lipid response to fenofibrate and FA serum concentrations is highly variable. Although FA is reported to be almost exclusively inactivated by UDP-glucuronosyltran...

Tissue iron overload constitutes a major health problem for people who require regular blood transfusions, such as those with beta-thalassemia major. Deferiprone is a hydroxypyridinone iron chelator used therapeutically to remove this excess iron and prevent tissue damage. Deferiprone is metabolized by UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) into defer...

Purpose: Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), a prodrug of mycophenolic acid (MPA), is a frequently used immunosuppressive drug in solid organ transplantation. MPA is metabolized by UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) to the major phenolic glucuronide (MPAG, 95%) and the minor acyl glucuronide (~5%, AcMPAG), which is pharmacologically active and potentiall...

We previously reported that polymorphisms in the UGT2B7 and UGT1A9 genes are associated with significant alteration in the disposition of mycophenolic acid (MPA) in healthy volunteers. This study further evaluates the impact of genetic polymorphisms at the UGT1A1, UGT1A7 and ABCC2 loci. Genetic analyses of five UGT candidate genes and ABCC2 were co...

A 6-month-old German shepherd dog was referred for evaluation of a cardiac murmur. Upon physical examination, the auscultated heart rate was 120 beats/min, and a grade IV/VI systolic heart murmur with a point of maximal intensity over the left heart base radiating up the neck was heard. The standard echocardiographic examination showed subaortic st...

Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is an immunosuppressive prodrug approved for use in transplantation. Its active metabolite, mycophenolic acid, is mainly metabolized by UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) enzymes. In this study, we retrospectively analyzed 74 kidney transplant patients who had been prescribed MMF as part of their immunosuppression regimen...

A method to determine total and free mycophenolic acid (MPA) and its metabolites, the phenolic (MPAG) and acyl (AcMPAG) glucuronides, using HPLC and mass spectrometry was developed. Mean recoveries in plasma and urine samples were >85%, and the lower limits of quantification for MPA, MPAG and AcMPAG were 0.05, 0.05 and 0.01 mg/L, respectively. For...

We studied whether polymorphisms in the UGT1A8, UGT1A9, and UGT2B7 genes, the enzymes producing the phenolic (MPAG) and acyl (AcMPAG) glucuronides of mycophenolic acid (MPA), could contribute to the interindividual variation observed in mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) pharmacokinetics (PKs). This study enrolled 17 healthy volunteers with no polymorphis...

Epitheliogenesis imperfecta has been reported in several animal species, and its inheritance is suspected to be autosomal recessive. This term has been used to describe two different diseases, namely epidermolysis bullosa and aplasia cutis congenita, which are both grossly characterized by an absence of epidermis or mucosal epithelium and are most...

Background: Mycophenolic acid (MPA), the active metabolite of the prodrug mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), is a standard immunosuppressive drug used after haematopoietic stem cell and solid organ transplantation. The pharmacokinetic profile of the drug and its phenolic (MPAG) and acyl (AcMPAG) glucuronides is characterized by unexplained interindividua...

A 3-year-old African hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris) was presented to the Exotic Animal Clinic of the University of Montreal for evaluation of a mass growing on the right thoracic wall. The diagnostic workup, which included helical computed tomography, confirmed the presence of a large mass, originating from the right 7th rib, infiltrating the thor...

A 2-year-did ferret was referred with a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. The animal died despite insulin therapy and was submitted for necropsy. Light microscopic examination revealed a mild hepatic lipidosis and pancreatic lesions consisting of a diffuse vacuolation of the Langerhans' islet cells with a periodic acid-Schiff positive material compat...

The UGT1A4 protein is mostly expressed in liver and exhibits its catalytic activity against various drugs such as tamoxifen, lamotrigine, imipramine and trifluoperazine. Only few studies demonstrated the in vitro alteration of UGT1A4 expression and UGT1A4-mediated glucuronidation by variations in regulatory sequences, such as the -163C/T and -219G/...

"Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maître ès sciences (M. Sc.) en sciences vétérinaires option pathologie" Thèse (M. Sc.)--Université de Montréal, 2006.