Juvenile Cardiomyopathy Tissue Study
In 2008, the team at UPEI applied for and received a grant from the Companion Animal Trust Fund. These funds will be used to study tissue samples from affected individuals at the microscopic level.
In order to ensure as many samples could be studied as possible, Dr. Martinson contacted universities/institutions identified on positive necropsies to request stored tissue samples. Because these organizations are required to keep tissue samples on file for several years, we were able to access tissues from both recent and older incidents. In total, tissue for 8 individuals was collected from across North America and samples for the additional two are in the works. It should be noted here that these tissues are not a suitable source of DNA and, so, do not affect our quest to collect 10 samples from affected puppies.
In addition to work done by Dr. Martinson and Dr. Cote, the tissue study will receive additional support from Dr. Carolyn Legge, a graduate student at the University of Prince Edward Island. Dr. Legge is currently completing her Master of Veterinary Science and will be working on Manchester tissue samples as part of her thesis.Because the tissues require special staining and treatment, this aspect of the study will take several months to complete. Once the initial work is done, our study team will be working on a clinical paper characterizing their findings.