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Aim: To investigate the nature and cause of a progressive ataxia in three 20-month-old Huntaway dogs that were litter mates.Methods: Affected dogs were examined before they were humanely killed and submitted to necropsy. Selected formalin-fixed tissues were examined by light and electron microscopy.Results: The lesions were those of axon and myelin degeneration within sensory, proprioceptive and motor tracts of the spinal cord and to a lesser degree some peripheral nerves.Conclusion: A progressive myelopathy and neuropathy, tentatively described as a central-peripheral distal axonopathy, was present in all 3 dogs.The cause was not determined but was likely to be either genetic or nutritional.Clinical relevance: In the early stages of this disease, careful examination maybe necessary to distinguish the signs of ataxia from orthopaedic disease such as hip dysplasia. Affected animals are unlikely to be of use as working dogs.

A storage disease characterised by widespread vacuolation of cells throughout the body was diagnosed in a newborn calf of the Salers breed. Extraction and analyses of water soluble material showed that the storage material was oligosaccharide in nature and was probably derived from the core region of the heterosaccharide moiety of glycoproteins. Glycosidase analyses showed that the disease was due to a deficiencv of acidic β-mannosidase. (New Zealand Veterinary Journal 38, 102-5, 1990)

Five Devon cattle with suspected ceroid-lipofuscinosis and aged between 19 and 39 months of age were humanely slaughtered and subjected to post-mortem examination. There was severe atrophy of the cerebrum, particularly of the occipital cortex. Microscopy also showed severe atrophy of the retina with complete loss of photoreceptor cells, even in the youngest animal examined. Histopathologically the disease was characterised by accumulation of a fluorescent lipopigment in neurones, including those of the retina and a severe astrocytosis. The disease, which is characterised by the accumulation of subunit c of mitochondrial ATP synthase, is similar to that extensively described in South Hampshire sheep except that the retinal lesions were more severe. In contrast, tremors were not noted in the cattle. The clinical history and similarity to the disease in sheep and other species indicated inheritance was as an autosomal recessive trait.

Analysis of the neutral urinary oligosaccharides in bovine, feline and human mannosidosis by thin-layer and gel-permeation chromatography has shown that the patterns of stored oligosaccharides in the three species are different. In bovine and feline mannosidosis the most abundant urinary oligosaccharide is also the most abundant in the tissues of each species. The predominant oligosaccharides were purified by a combination of gel-filtration, ion-exchange and thin-layer chromatography and shown to contain only mannose and N-acetylglucosamine by g.l.c. and g.l.c.-mass spectrometry. The probable composition and size of each oligosaccharide were predicted from its chromatographic properties, sugar composition and the known structure of asparagine-linked oligosaccharides. The bovine and feline oligosaccharides belonged to a homologous series of general composition Mann (GlcNAc)2, whereas the human oligosaccharides belong to a different series, MannGlcNAc. These structures suggest that lysosomal endohexosaminidase is not present in bovine and feline tissues. The predominant feline storage product, Man3(GlcNAc)2, was the expected storage product from the catabolism of complex asparagine-linked glycans. In contrast, the predominant bovine oligosaccharide, Man2(GlcNAc)2, probably lacks one of the alpha-linked mannose residues in the core region. A similar situation occurs in human mannosidosis. It is predicted that in these species either that the residual mutant alpha-D-mannosidase retains activity towards one of the core alpha-linked mannose residues or that another form of lysosomal alpha-D-mannosidase that is unaffected in these disorders occurs. It is concluded that the differences in storage products are due to differences in the catabolic pathways of glycoproteins among the species.

Extract: This paper describes an experiment of nature involving a chimeric calf with mannosidosis which had obtained a natural transplant of lymphocytes from its normal twin during fetal development as a result of fusion of the placentas. Karyotyping of 200 peripheral blood lymphocytes showed that 77% were 60,xx and 23% 60,xy. The a-mannosidase pH dependence activity profiles obtained for the chimera were similar to those for a mannosidosis calf in brain, liver, kidney, and plasma but for peripheral lymphocytes and lymph node extracts enzyme activities approaching those of the normal control calf were measured at pH 4.0–4.3. In the chimera, vacuolation of macrophages and fixed reticuloendothelial cells in lymph nodes and of pancreatic exocrine cells was considerably less than was observed in any of the 35 other calves with mannosidosis. There were considerably fewer oligosaccharides in the brain, lymph node, and liver of the chimera calf than in any of the five mannosidosis control calves. There is little doubt that the a-mannosidase produced by the population of normal cells influenced the pathology of the disease, but failure to significantly prevent the eventual clinical course even under these favorable transplant conditions is indicative that tissue or organ transplants are unlikely to be a successful cure for diseases with severe neurologic manifestations. If this disease had been purely visceral then it is postulated that the transplant would have been reasonably effective.Speculation: Although acidic a-mannosidase supplied by a natural transplant of lymphocytes, and perhaps other cells, was unable to cure or prevent all clinical manifestations of mannosidosis, the therapeutic effect noted in visceral organs indicates that transplants may be an effective means of treating some inborn errors of lysosomal catabolism that occur without severe neurologic involvement. The reduction of storage material within the brain of the chimera suggests that larger amounts of exogenous enzyme supplied over a prolonged period might be more effective in storage diseases with neurologic manifestations. If it can be established that a concentration gradient for storage material exists between certain tissues and tissue fluids then it may not be essential to actively deliver enzyme to the central nervous system.

Acidic alpha-mannosidase (EC 3.2.1.24), optimum pH 4.25, is absent from the plasma of Angus calves with mannosidosis, and the residual alpha-mannosidase activity has an optimum pH of 5.5, intermediate between that of the acidic and neutral alpha-mannosidases. This ‘intermediate’ alpha-mannosidase differs from the acidic form in its kinetic properties, its lack of marked inhibition by EDTA and its thermolability at 55 degrees C and physiological pH. Isoelectric focusing and ion-exchange chromatography show that it exists in at least two forms. The presence of a secondary peak at pH 5.5 in the pH/activity profile of normal plasma and the effect of heating at 55 degrees C indicate that such a form is present in normal plasma. The residual activity in the plasma of a calf with mannosidosis is therefore probably not the product of the defective gene. A differential assay, based on their different stabilities at 55 degrees C, has been developed for measuring the acidic and intermediate alpha-mannosidases in plasma. There was no correlation between the concentrations of the two enzymes in the plasma of Angus cows heterozygous for mannosidosis or in the plasma of normal animals. This precludes the use of the intermediate form as a reference enzyme for the acidic activity in a test for heterozygosity for mannosidosis based on the gene-dosage phenomenon. The concentrations of the intermediate activity were comparable in normal animals and animals homozygous or heterozygous for mannosidosis.

Normal calf α-mannosidase activity exists in at least three forms separable by chromatography on DEAE-cellulose and by starch-gel electrophoresis. Two components, A and B, have optimum activity between pH3.75 and 4.75, but component C has an optimum of pH6.6. Components A and B are virtually absent from the tissues of a calf with mannosidosis and the residual activity is due to component C. The acidic and neutral forms of α-mannosidase differ in their molecular weights and sensitivity to EDTA, Zn2+, Co2+ and Mn2+. An acidic α-mannosidase component (pH optimum 4.0) accounts for most of the activity in normal plasma but it is absent from the plasma of a calf with mannosidosis. Although the acidic α-mannosidase component is probably related to tissue components A and B, it can be distinguished from them by ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration. The optimum pH of the low residual activity in the plasma from a calf with mannosidosis is pH5.5–5.75. The results support the hypothesis that Angus-cattle mannosidosis is a storage disease caused by a deficiency of lysosomal acidic α-mannosidase activity.

Previous studies on the lipopigment from the livers of sheep affected with ceroid lipofuscinosis showed that the disease does not involve a defect in lipid metabolism or abnormal lipid peroxidation and that most of the lipopigment was proteinaceous. In this study, lipopigment was isolated from liver, kidney, pancreas, and brain of affected sheep without the use of proteolytic enzymes. Lipopigment from all tissues was two-thirds protein. Modified silver staining after sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed a major band of Mr = 14,800, heterogeneous material between Mr = 5,000 and 9,000, and a major band of Mr = 3,500. These compounds did not stain for RNA or carbohydrate and were digested by a nuclease-free protease as expected for protein. They are not normal lysosomal proteins. Lipopigment levels of dolichol, ubiquinone, and cholesterol were consistent with the lipopigment being protein-enriched lysosome-derived cytosomes. The presence of the Mr = 3,500 proteins in whole affected tissue homogenates distinguished them from homogenates of normal tissues. It was concluded that low Mr proteins are specifically stored in ovine ceroid lipofuscinosis and that the ceroid lipofuscinoses may result from inherited defects in lysosomal protein catabolism.