Lobação pulmonar e distribuição brônquica do ouriço-cacheiro (Sphiggurus villosus)

Abstract

Background: The orange-spined hairy dwarf porcupine (Sphiggurus villosus) is a mammal found in Brazil, Venezuela, Guyanas and Bolivia. Its dorsum is yellowish brown and presents a great number of spines. There are no spines in the belly area, which is covered with softer fur. It can host ticks and louses, hemoparasites and endoparasites. This paper aimed to describe the lung lobation and the bronchial distribution of the orange-spined hairy dwarf porcupine. Materials, Methods & Results: The lungs of two orange-spined hairy dwarf porcupines, ran over by cars and with no damage in the viscerae, were used in the study. Animals were set with intramuscular and intravisceral injections of a 10% formaldehyde solution and further dissected. The right lung was bigger than the left one and presented cranial, middle, caudal and accessory lobes, and the cranial lobe was bilobated in cranial and caudal portions. The left lung presented cranial and caudal lobes, and the former was subdivided into cranial and caudal portions. The right main bronchus divided into three bronchi, one to the cranial, one to the middle and one to the caudal and accessory lobes. The right lobar bronchus gave origin to five segmental bronchi to the cranial portion and three segmental bronchi to the caudal portion; the middle lobar bronchus originated four segmental bronchi; the accessory lobe bronchus was originated from the right caudal lobe and divided into two segmental bronchi. The right lobar bronchus divided into eleven segmental bronchi. The main left bronchus bifurcated into one bronchus to the cranial lobe and one to the caudal lobe; the left cranial lobe bronchus divided into five to the cranial portion and two to the caudal portion; the left caudal lobe bronchus originated eleven segmental bronchi as well as the right one. Discussion: Markable interlobar fissures were noticed between lobes, similarly to the domestic carnivorous, to the crabeating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus) and to wild rodents as agoutis (Dasyprocta azarae). There was a left lobe division, differently from the described in the crab-eating raccoon and horses, and similarly to the described in domestic carnivorous or in agoutis, capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) and pacas (Agouti paca). In all lobes, but the accessory lobe, lobar bronchi divided into several segmental bronchi, differently from the described in the right cranial and accessory lobes of the domestic carnivorous and of the crab-eating raccoon, and from the right middle lobe bronchus of the paca, which presented a bifurcated lobar bronchus. It also differed from the left cranial lobe of agoutis and pacas, which presented one or three segmental bronchi to this lobe, respectively. In the accessory lobe, there was a lobar bronchus bifurcating in segmental bronchi, as described in the domestic carnivorous and in the crab-eating raccoon. The bronchial distribution and lung lobation of the orange-spined hairy dwarf porcupine were different from the ones reported in domestic carnivorous and horses, wild rodents and from the crab-eating raccoon, with a markable division in the left and right cranial lobes, as in the domestic ruminants, from whom it differed due the absence of the tracheal bronchus.