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Emaciation with serous atrophy of fat in a Northern Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris)

May 2025 (approx.)

Detailed Description

Figure 1. Photomicrographs from a Northern Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) found dead on a beach in Alaska, USA. (A) Lymph node. Germinal centers are depleted. Adjacent mesenteric adipose tissue markedly atrophic (arrowheads). (B) High magnification of mesenteric adipose tissue. Adipocytes are shrunken, with reduced lipid storage vacuoles (arrows) or have frothy eosinophilic cytoplasm and central to eccentric nuclei (arrowheads). 

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Public Domain.

Photomicrographs from a Northern Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) found dead on a beach in Alaska, USA. (A) Lymph node. Germinal centers are depleted. Adjacent mesenteric adipose tissue markedly atrophic (arrowheads). (B) High magnification of mesenteric adipose tissue. Adipocytes are shrunken, with reduced lipid storage vacuoles (arrows) or have frothy eosinophilic cytoplasm and central to eccentric nuclei (arrowheads). 

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