Gardner G R, Harshbarger J C, Lake J L, Sawyer T K, Price K L, Stephenson M D, Haaker P L, Togstad H A
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882, USA.
J Invertebr Pathol. 1995 Sep;66(2):111-20. doi: 10.1006/jipa.1995.1072.
Withering syndrome (WS) is an epizootic fatal wasting disease that is devastating California Channel Island populations of black abalone Haliotis cracherodii. Our studies suggest a strong pathogen-disease association. The pathogen is an intracellular prokaryote that infects epithelial cells lining the gut and enzyme secreting cells of the digestive diverticula. It multiplies by binary fission in round to oval, basophilic, membrane-bound colonies teeming in the cytoplasm. Infection of the digestive diverticula is accompanied by a complete loss of digestive enzyme granules and metaplasia of enzyme secretory cells to a morphology similar to epithelium lining the gut. Extensive infection of digestive diverticular cells and the resultant deficiency in digestive enzymes correlates to the degree of pedal muscle atrophy and the severity of signs associated with WS. Electron microscopically the intracellular pathogen is a rod-shaped, ribosome-rich, gram-negative, prokaryote with a trilaminar cell wall consistent with the order Rickettsiales. Microbiological and protozoological methods produced no patterns that implicated other types of microbes. Chemical analysis of tissue from animals from a population with WS did not support an association between WS and environmental pollutant exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, or chlorinated pesticides.
枯萎综合征（WS）是一种流行性致命消瘦疾病，正在摧毁加利福尼亚海峡群岛的黑鲍（Haliotis cracherodii）种群。我们的研究表明病原体与疾病之间存在紧密关联。该病原体是一种细胞内原核生物，可感染肠道内衬上皮细胞和消化盲囊的酶分泌细胞。它通过二分裂在圆形至椭圆形、嗜碱性、有膜包裹的菌落中繁殖，这些菌落在细胞质中大量存在。消化盲囊的感染伴随着消化酶颗粒的完全丧失以及酶分泌细胞化生为与肠道内衬上皮相似的形态。消化盲囊细胞的广泛感染以及由此导致的消化酶缺乏与足部肌肉萎缩程度和与WS相关的症状严重程度相关。在电子显微镜下，细胞内病原体是一种杆状、富含核糖体、革兰氏阴性的原核生物，具有与立克次氏体目一致的三层细胞壁。微生物学和原生动物学方法未发现涉及其他类型微生物的模式。对患有WS的种群动物组织进行的化学分析不支持WS与多环芳烃、多氯联苯或氯化农药等环境污染物暴露之间的关联。
