Mia Salas, Week 4, Meatball in the Colony

My PI came back from vacation this week, so Kate and I got a break from Gary and his microscopes (which were definitely interesting but at a certain point there’s only so much you can learn about microscopes in a day). We did electrodiagnostics on Monday up in the colony. Kate and I, once again, got lost trying to find the colony, but eventually we made it. When we got there, a bunch of the PennVet students were in the same room as us, laughing at one of the dogs who was under a cart. The dog’s name was Meatball, which is probably the cutest and most accurate name for this small, furry dog. Sometimes I would feel something on my leg and turn around to see Meatball looking up at me, and other times he'd just be doing something crazy, like trying to fit on the shelves or hiding under the carts. So back to the Electrodiagnostics.  Electrodiagnostics is basically measuring the electrical activity in the muscles. We did electrodiagnostics first on a cat and then a dog. Dr. Vite showed us what normal electrical activity is supposed to look like in the cat, and when we tested the dog, irregular electrical activity was present.  Dr. Vite used a machine, in which he delivered an electrical charge to the cat/dog’s peripheral nerve, which then causes a muscle contraction, and how the cat/dog responded to the signal showed if their nerves and muscles are functioning or diseased.  Nerve conduction velocity is determined and Dr. Vite measured the distance the signal travelled. He inserted needles into various muscles while the cat/dog was asleep to test multiple nerves. Patty was in the room too to make sure the cat/dog stayed anesthetized. Images of the electrical activity were printed out as well. After electrodiagnostics, the dog that just undergone electrodiagnostic testing was ready to be put down. He had Krabbe disease, what Alison is currently studying, and he wasn’t going to live much longer. Dr. Vite warned me and Kate that after they put the dog to sleep, they were going to have to do a post-mortem dissection of the dog to save all of his organs. Dr. Vite told us he would like us to stay, because we could learn a lot, but he said that if it gets to be too much to handle, then we can step out of the room for a while. Kate and I stayed for the whole time. It was pretty intense, just as Dr. Vite described, but seeing a real brain, heart, stomach, liver, spinal cord, lungs, eyeballs, muscles, and so much more was incredible. After sections were cut from a part of the body, they were put into an individual tube and into liquid nitrogen to freeze. Alison worked on slicing the brain into flat sections, which she then covered in foil and placed in a box in the freezer for later use. Kate and I talked about it after and we both agreed that although it was very sad, we know that it is for a greater cause and that the dog was already in pain from Krabbe disease, and so as Dr. Vite put it, the dog was like a person being an organ donor after they pass away.

I worked a lot on my project this week too, and that's what I'll be doing today and Friday. I finished tracking weight gain in NPC cats, and now I made graphs for the ALT liver enzyme in cats to see if maybe ALT could have had an effect on how the treatments worked for each of the treatment groups (starting at 8 weeks, 12, and 16). After ALT, I will look through the spreadsheet of other enzymes that Jess sent me to explore other factors that could have affected the results. I also think I might adopt Meatball. Actually I can't because my mom would freak out if I brought home a dog, but maybe she'll make an exception for Meatball. I hope I can go up to the colony again to visit him. I’m looking forward to the last 2 weeks of lab!