Ultrastructure of Hepatozoon canis in the dog

The ultrastructure of several stages of Hepatozoon canis found in dogs with clinically diagnosed infections was determined using transmission electron microscopy. Stages were found in skeletal muscle tissue that corresponded to the 'onion skin' cyst stage, as described at the light microscopic level, and were composed of an electron-transparent material that appeared to radiate from a central core. Larger cysts, walled off by fibroblasts, contained a transformed host cell located centrally within them. The parasitic stage within these transformed cells contained numerous organelles including mitochondria and Golgi apparatus, and was singularly nucleated. In cardiac muscle, a meront was observed which produced merozoites by ectomerogony. Adjacent to this meront was a granuloma containing merozoites within mononuclear phagocytes which may either serve as a reservoir of parasites for reinfection of the host or differentiate into the circulating gamont stage of the parasite. Gamonts were found within parasitophorous vacuoles inside circulating neutrophils. They had a condensed cytoplasmic appearance and were extremely electron dense with respect to other observed parasite stages. In vitro cultivation of parasitized neutrophils resulted in the appearance of a stage of the parasite with altered ultrastructure compared with gamonts found in circulating neutrophils. This stage was judged to be a possible gamete stage of the parasite.