EXTRAINTESTINAL MANIFESTATIONS OF COTTON-TOP TAMARIN COLITIS

A feature of human ulcerative colitis is the occurrence of extraintest inal manifestations of the disease: ankylosing spondylitis, peripheral arthropathy, iritis, iridoconjunctivitis, episcleritis and liver dise ases (fatty liver, mild periportal chronic inflammation, and sclerosin g cholangitis). More rarely, cholangiocarcinoma, hepatic abscesses, or cirrhosis are seen. The cotton-top tamarin (CTT) develops a noninfect ive spontaneously occurring colitis which closely resembles human ulce rative colitis clinically, endoscopically, histologically, and in resp onse to treatment. This study evaluated liver and joint disease in CTT s with colitis. Livers from 100 cotton-top tamarins with ulcerative co litis were examined histologically at postmortem; 40 had varied pathol ogy: steatosis (16), hepatitis (4), and abscess (4). Four animals had excessive portal fibrosis in the absence of significant inflammation a nd which resembled sclerosing cholangitis. Neither skeletal radiograph s of 217 CTTs, including 43 that were > 10 yr of age, nor histological examination of synovia from 10 knees, showed abnormalities. The findi ngs of sclerosing cholangitis-like liver abnormalities strengthen the role of the CTT as a unique animal model of human ulcerative colitis.