Cardiac myopathies in neonatal lambs: histological and histochemical studies

White muscle disease (WMD), a selenium-responsive cardiac myopathy in neonatal lambs has been described from southern Iran. 15 lambs in terminal condition were referred to our lab. All the lambs were observed with the affected hearts. The lambs examined were between the postnatal ages of 1 week and 3 months. Gross changes included chalky-white appearance of entire endocardium of right ventricle and subendocardial plaques in the interventricular septum and left ventricular wall. Histologically the affected myofibrils showed swelling, acidophilia, fragmentation, segmental and patchy myonecrosis, round muscle cell nuclei, loss of sarcoplasm and sarcolemmal collapse. Purkinje fibers were relatively unaffected. Histochemical studies including Von Kossa and other stains indicated marked deposition of calcium salts in the cytoplasm of the damaged myofibrils. Calcium salts appeared as uniform, fine granules in relation to individual fiber striations. It appears that rapid accumulation of calcium into the damaged cells possibly interferes with the mitochondrial activity. As mitochondria bind excessive calcium, their capacity to respire and phosphorylate is depressed thus causing myocardial necrosis. The cardiac myopathy noted in our investigation is probably due to selenium deficiency in the soil of southern Iran. When selenium was given, it resulted in the fast recovery of the affected neonatal lambs. Moreover, no further cases of this disease (WMD) were reported after such treatments.