Canine Atopy Project

Health Committee Update
Spring 1999 Newsletter

Robert E. McCaskill, DVM, MPH
Westie Foundation Medical Chairperson

PROGRESS REPORT: RESEARCH PROJECTS

Canine Atopy Project

The researches at North Carolina State University report that they have strong preliminary evidence from their past year's work that dogs with atopic skin disease have skin mast cells that are different from non-atopic dogs. The fact that their observations were made on healthy skin, where the influence of inflammation is minimal, suggests that atopy is an inherited trait.

What has been established so far?

This grant has established that there are indeed clear differences between dogs which have atopic skin disease and normal dogs by studying skin cells from healthy skin. This suggests the possible existence of a readily detectable inherited trait distinguishing dogs predisposed to atopic disease.

The goals of their research project are two fold. First, they are comparing mast cell phenotype markers between atopic and non-atopic dogs. In this effort, they indicate that there are differences in the mast cells of atopic dogs compared with non-atopic dogs. These observations were made on non-lesion skin from atopic dogs, which suggests that they are not the result of local inflammatory processes. Second, they will compare mast cell functions between atopic and non-atopic dogs.

More dogs needed in the study.

The preliminary results reported here, must be verified by completing the study of 20 atopic dogs. To accomplish this requires the help of our club's participation. To date, they have 5 dogs in the study. We need 15 more atopic dogs to give our researchers the cases required to validate their results. The results of the past year will help to focus the search for a detectable inherited trait associated with atopic disease.