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During a 3-year time period, a 15-year-old male castrated Terrier mix (dog 1) and a 6-year-old female spayed Labrador Retriever (dog 2) presented to the North Carolina State Veterinary Hospital with similar blood work abnormalities and no significant physical examination findings. A CBC, chemistry panel, and urinalysis performed on both dogs were relatively unremarkable, other than a marked increase in serum gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) activity. Through imaging, both patients were diagnosed with a renal mass, and histopathology of both masses revealed a carcinoma. Immunohistochemical staining of the renal mass in both dog 1 and dog 2 were intensely positive for GGT. Dog 1 had the affected kidney removed, which normalized the GGT value. Dog 2 was euthanized, and metastasis to the lung was noted upon postmortem examination. There have been limited case studies documenting an elevation in serum GGT in dogs diagnosed with renal carcinoma. While renal carcinoma is uncommon in dogs, it is an important differential to keep in mind when there is a marked increase in serum GGT without accompanying increases in other measured liver enzymes. In addition, serum GGT can serve as a helpful biomarker for disease resolution and recurrence, as surgical removal of the renal mass (dog 1) led to the resolution of the elevated serum GGT. To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating IHC staining for GGT in a canine renal carcinoma., (© 2024 The Author(s). Veterinary Clinical Pathology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology.)

The mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system (MDS) is the canonical "reward" pathway that has been studied extensively in the context of the rewarding properties of sex, food, and drugs of abuse. In contrast, very little is known about the role of the MDS in the processing of the rewarding and aversive properties of social stimuli. Social interactions can be characterized by their salience (i.e., importance) and their rewarding or aversive properties (i.e., valence). Here, we test the novel hypothesis that projections from the medial ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core codes for the salience of social stimuli through the phasic release of DA in response to both rewarding and aversive social stimuli. In contrast, we hypothesize that projections from the lateral VTA to the NAc shell codes for the rewarding properties of social stimuli by increasing the tonic release of DA and the aversive properties of social stimuli by reducing the tonic release of DA. Using DA amperometry, which monitors DA signaling with a high degree of temporal and anatomical resolution, we measured DA signaling in the NAc core or shell while rewarding and aversive social interactions were taking place. These findings, as well as additional anatomical and functional studies, provide strong support for the proposed neural circuitry underlying the response of the MDS to social stimuli. Together, these data provide a novel conceptualization of how the functional and anatomical heterogeneity within the MDS detect and distinguish between social salience, social reward, and social aversion., Significance Statement: Social interactions of both positive and negative valence are highly salient stimuli that profoundly impact social behavior and social relationships. Although DA projections from the VTA to the NAc are involved in reward and aversion little is known about their role in the saliency and valence of social stimuli. Here, we report that DA projections from the mVTA to the NAc core signal the salience of social stimuli, whereas projections from the lVTA to the NAc shell signal valence of social stimuli. This work extends our current understanding of the role of DA in the MDS by characterizing its subcircuit connectivity and associated function in the processing of rewarding and aversive social stimuli., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Children with autism are at high risk for experiencing a mental health crisis, which occurs when psychiatric and behavioral symptoms become a danger and caregivers do not have the resources to safely manage the event. Our current mental health systems of care are not fully prepared to manage crisis in autistic individuals, due to the shortage of available mental health providers and programs that are tailored for autistic children. However, new strategies to address crisis are gradually emerging. This article provides a framework to define crisis and implement prevention and intervention approaches that could potentially mitigate risk for crisis., Competing Interests: Disclosure L. Kalb conducts research with and for the National Center for START Services at the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire. He receives compensation for these efforts., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

ASD is a neurodevelopmental disorder impacting 1 in 44 children and early identification of children with ASD is critical for the intervention. Several screening measures have been developed for early identification, including the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales, 6-18 years Parent Report (ASRS). The ASRS has been understudied, and the current study assessed the validity of the ASRS in a clinical sample of 490 children at a tertiary ASD-specialty clinic. Results indicated that the ASRS demonstrated favorable sensitivity, but poor specificity. True positive screening results were more likely to occur for children with a multiracial background, while they were less likely to occur for children with a high social capital. Overall, though the ASRS has clinical utility as a screening measure, it did not perform effectively to differentiate ASD from Non-ASD clinical disorders., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Social stress plays an important role in the etiology of many neuropsychiatric disorders and can lead to a variety of behavioral deficits such as social withdrawal. One way that social stress may contribute to psychiatric disorders is by reducing social motivation and the rewarding properties of social interactions. We investigated the impact of social stress on social reward in the context of winning versus losing agonistic encounters in Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus). First, we tested the hypothesis that social stress resulting from either stable low, or subordinate, social status or from social defeat reduces the rewarding properties of social interactions. Using an Operant Social Preference (OSP) task to measure social reward/motivation, we found that both subordinate and socially defeated males made significantly fewer entries into chambers containing novel, same-sex conspecifics compared to males who were dominant (i.e., stably won the agonistic encounters). In females, however, there were no differences in social entries between winners and losers. In a second experiment, we found more activation of the mesolimbic dopamine system (MDS) as assessed with cFos immunohistochemistry in the lateral ventral tegmental area (lVTA) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell of male winners compared to losers. In females, however, there were no differences in activation in the lVTA between winners and losers. Surprisingly, however, winning females displayed significantly more activation in the NAc shell as compared to losing females, despite the lack of behavioral differences. Thus, behavioral and histological data suggest that there are sex differences in the impact of social status on social reward and associated mesolimbic activation., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have nothing to disclose., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

A reduction in the rewarding properties of social interactions is frequently a key contributor to neuropsychiatric disorders. Although much remains to be learned about the neural mechanisms governing social reward, numerous studies have found that oxytocin can enhance the salience of rewarding social interactions. As a result, oxytocin has been suggested as a pharmacotherapy for disorders characterized by a dampening of social motivation. However, exogenous oxytocin does not cross the blood-brain barrier effectively, which has led to the investigation of alternative approaches to induce central oxytocin release, such as pharmaceuticals targeting melanocortins. Although oxytocin treatment is widely viewed to increase social reward, there is also recent evidence that high concentrations of oxytocin can decrease social reward. In the present study we tested the hypothesis that alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (αMSH) influences the rewarding properties of social interactions by acting on oxytocin receptors. Male and female Syrian hamsters were given intracerebroventricular infusions of saline, αMSH, or a cocktail containing αMSH and an oxytocin receptor antagonist during social conditioning with a same-sex hamster and then tested for a conditioned place preference. αMSH decreased preference for the socially-paired chamber compared to saline treatment, and administration of the oxytocin antagonist concurrent with αMSH administration returned subjects' preference to control levels. Importantly, αMSH treatments did not affect any measures of body composition or the specific social behaviors displayed during conditioning. These data suggest that melanocortin-targeting drugs should be administered carefully to avoid the possibility of decreasing the rewarding properties of social interactions., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In the dermatologic medical literature, there is an underrepresentation of conditions in individuals of color. Due to the lack of representation, it may be harder for clinicians to recognize certain diagnoses in patients with darker skin phototypes leading to misdiagnosis and affecting overall patient management, outcomes, and satisfaction. Here, we present four Black or Indigenous People of Color who were initially referred for hyperpigmentation, hemihyperplasia, or café au lait spots and found to have syndromic capillary malformations., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)