Biomarkers in horses are measurable indicators of biological processes, states, or conditions that can be used to assess health and disease. These biomarkers can be identified in various biological samples such as blood, urine, or tissue. They provide valuable information for diagnosing diseases, monitoring health status, and evaluating treatment responses in equine medicine. Common biomarkers in horses include enzymes, hormones, and metabolites, which may change in response to physiological or pathological conditions. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the identification, quantification, and application of biomarkers in equine health and disease management.
Witkowski M, Pardyak L, Pawlicki P, Galuszka A, Profaska-Szymik M, Plachno BJ, Kantor S, Duliban M, Kotula-Balak M.Cryptorchidism in horses is a commonly occurring malformation. The molecular basis of this pathology is not fully known. In addition, the origins of high intratesticular estrogen levels in horses remain obscure. In order to investigate the role of the G-protein-coupled membrane estrogen receptor (GPER) and establish histological and biochemical cryptorchid testis status, healthy and cryptorchid horse testes were subjected to scanning electron microscopy analysis, histochemical staining for total protein (with naphthol blue black; NBB), acid content (with toluidine blue O; TBO), and polysacchar...
Tesena P, Kingkaw A, Vongsangnak W, Pitikarn S, Phaonakrop N, Roytrakul S, Kovitvadhi A.Equine melanocytic neoplasm (EMN) is a cutaneous neoplasm and is mostly observed in aged grey horses. This preliminary study aimed to identify potential proteins to differentiate normal, mild and severe EMN from serum proteomic profiling. Serum samples were collected from 25 grey horses assigned to three groups: normal (free of EMN; = 10), mild ( = 6) and severe EMN ( = 9). To explore the differences in proteins between groups, proteomic profiling and analysis were employed. Accordingly, 8241 annotated proteins out of 8725 total proteins were compared between normal and EMN groups and inspect...
Knych HK, Arthur RM, Gretler SR, McKemie DS, Goldin S, Kass PH.Flunixin meglumine is a highly efficacious nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug commonly used in equine medicine and especially in performance horses. Recently, a new transdermal flunixin meglumine product has been approved for use in cattle. Although not currently approved for use in the horse, the convenience of this product may prove appealing for use in horses, warranting study. Six horses were administered a single transdermal dose of 500 mg and blood and urine samples collected for up to 96 h post-administration. Serum for determination of thromboxane concentrations and whole blood samp...
Ertelt A, Merle R, Stumpff F, Bollinger L, Liertz S, Weber C, Gehlen H.The purpose of this study was to assess a change in different blood parameters before and after a 160 km endurance race and to evaluate differences in cardiac biomarkers between horses that completed the race and horses that did not. The study population consisted of 52 healthy endurance horses. Horses participating in the study were assigned to three groups: horses that successfully completed the race ("finishers"), horses that failed to qualify at the veterinary check for primarily metabolic reasons ("metabolic") and horses that failed to qualify at the veterinary check for primarily gait re...
Haralambus R, Florczyk A, Sigl E, Gültekin S, Vogl C, Brandt S, Schnierer M, Gamerith C, Jenner F.Synovial sepsis is a commonly occurring, potentially career-ending or even life-threatening orthopaedic emergency. Diagnosis of synovial sepsis is currently primarily based on synovial fluid analysis, which often leaves diagnostic ambiguity due to overlap of clinicopathological parameters between septic and aseptic inflammatory synovitis. Objective: To evaluate the reliability of lysozyme (LYS), myeloperoxidase (MPO) and elastase (ELT) as biomarkers for synovial sepsis in horses using a photometric assay to measure increased enzyme activity. Methods: Prospective, single-blinded, analytical, cl...
Duarte PC, Ribeiro RM, Machado ART, Faleiros RR, Pimenta LPS, Filho JDS.The incidence of equine metabolic syndrome, a condition that results in endocrinopathic laminitis, is increasing worldwide. Although it is well known that the development of this syndrome depends on imbalances in energy metabolism and genetic traits, its pathophysiology remains unclear. Hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance (H NMR) is a powerful tool used to compare metabolic profiles and to discriminate metabolites in living beings. The aim was to apply this technology to detect blood biomarkers candidates in horses that were previously demonstrated to developed metabolic changes when subjected...
Lo HC, Winter JC, Merle R, Gehlen H.Acute dehydration caused by a variety of diseases in horses can lead to acute kidney injury. However, current renal biomarkers usually indicate renal damage late in the course of the disease. A novel biomarker would be helpful to diagnose renal disease earlier. Objective: (1) To estimate the correlation of serum symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) concentrations with the degree of dehydration, traditional renal biomarkers and renal function analysis, and (2) to determine the value of SDMA as a prognostic and early biomarker of renal injury in horses. Methods: Prospective cohort. Methods: Serum S...
Schnabel CL, Babasyan S, Freer H, Larson EM, Wagner B.Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) is a pleiotropic cytokine, that is involved in acute inflammation and is employed as a biomarker of inflammatory diseases in several species for which reliable quantification is available. We aimed to develop suitable tools to quantify TNF-α in equine samples. We generated two new mAbs against equine TNF-α (clones 48 and 292), evaluated their specificity for this cytokine, and confirmed detection of native TNF-α in stimulated equine PBMC. The TNF-α mAbs were paired in a fluorescent bead-based assay for quantification of equine TNF-α. The TNF-α assay had ...
Jiang Z, Chen JW, Haughan J, Stefanovski D, Soma LR, Robinson MA.Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) is a treatment applied to musculoskeletal injuries in equine athletes to alleviate pain and accelerate healing. ESWT also causes acute tissue damage. Therefore, its ability to act as an analgesic and cause tissue damage potentially increases the risk of a catastrophic event if used shortly before a strenuous competition such as horseracing. While ESWT is prohibited by many racing jurisdictions within 10 days prior to competition, a test to detect whether a horse has received ESWT is needed. ESWT changes the protein levels of inflammatory mediators in bl...
Weber KS, Wagener K, Blanco M, Bauersachs S, Bollwein H.Subfertility is a major problem in modern horse breeding. Especially, mares without clinical signs of reproductive diseases, without known uterine pathogens and no evidence of inflammation but not becoming pregnant after several breeding attempts are challenging for veterinarians. To obtain new insights into the cause of these fertility problems and aiming at improving diagnosis of subfertile mares, a comparative analysis of the intrauterine transcriptome in subfertile and fertile mares was performed. Uterine cytobrush samples were collected during estrus from 57 mares without clinical signs o...
Contreras-Aguilar MD, Cerón JJ, Muñoz A, Ayala I.Salivary biomarkers could be useful to evaluate stress, fitness level, and skeletal muscle damage associated to exercise in horses in an easy and non-painful way. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate if cortisol in saliva (sCor), salivary alpha-amylase (sAMY) and butyrylcholinesterase (sBChE) and lactate (sLA) and creatine kinase (sCK) in saliva of horses can show changes during a standardized exercise test, and if they are related to heart rate variability (HRV) parameters related to sympathetic and parasympathetic tone, fitness level or skeletal muscle damage. For this purpose, ten enduran...
Ohnuma K, Uchida T, Leung GN, Ueda T, Obara T, Ishii H.In the context of doping control, conventional direct chemical testing detects only a limited scope of target substances in equine biological samples. To expand the ability to detect doping agents and their detection windows, metabolomics has recently become a common approach for monitoring alteration of biomarkers caused by doping agents in relevant metabolic pathways. In horse racing, remarkable changes in metabolic profiles between the rest state and racing are likely to affect the identification of doping biomarkers. Previously, we reported a limited number of significantly upregulated met...
Siwińska N, Żak A, Pasławska U.Diagnosis of acute kidney injury (AKI) in horses is difficult at the subclinical stage, due to nonspecific clinical signs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the concentrations of selected serum and urinary biomarkers in healthy horses, horses at risk of AKI, and those with clinical AKI. Methods: Thirty healthy horses, 30 horses at risk of AKI and 11 horses with clinical AKI and azotaemia were included in the study. Serum and urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and cystatin C were measured using commercially available enzyme immunoassay tests. Results: The median and (...
Hedia M, Ibrahim S, Mahmoud K, Ahmed Y, Ismail S, El-Belely M.Apparently healthy mares with conception failure or embryonic loss may have subclinical endometritis (SE). Our objective was to document evidence of systemic immune responses against SE in mares. In apparently healthy (control) mares as well as those with chronic endometritis (ChE) or subacute suppurative endometritis (SSE), both considered classes of SE, serum concentrations of cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10 and TNF), chemokines (IL-8), acute phase protein (SAA), and plasma concentrations of prostaglandins (PGF and PGE) were measured using validated enzyme linked immunoassays (EIA). Mixed-bre...
Watkins A, Fasanello D, Stefanovski D, Schurer S, Caracappa K, D'Agostino A, Costello E, Freer H, Rollins A, Read C, Su J, Colville M, Paszek M....Lameness is a debilitating condition in equine athletes that leads to more performance limitation and loss of use than any other medical condition. There are a limited number of non-terminal experimental models that can be used to study early inflammatory and synovial fluid biophysical changes that occur in the equine joint. Here, we compare the well-established carpal IL-1β-induced synovitis model to a tarsal intra-articular lavage model, focusing on serial changes in synovial fluid inflammatory cytokines/chemokines and the synovial fluid lubricating molecules lubricin/proteoglycan 4 and hya...
Edwards LA, Donnelly CG, Reed SM, Valberg S, Chigerwe M, Johnson AL, Finno CJ.Currently, there is little information regarding the concentrations of phosphorylated neurofilament heavy protein (pNfH) in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of horses with neurodegenerative diseases. Specifically, pNfH concentrations have not yet been evaluated in horses with equine neuroaxonal dystrophy/equine degenerative myeloencephalopathy (eNAD/EDM). Objective: To determine pNfH concentrations using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in serum and CSF from control horses and horses with eNAD/EDM, cervical vertebral compressive myelopathy (CVCM) and Shivers. Metho...
Loup B, André F, Avignon J, Lhuaire M, Delcourt V, Barnabé A, Garcia P, Popot MA, Bailly-Chouriberry L.Short half-life doping substances are, quickly eliminated and therefore difficult to control with traditional analytical chemistry methods. Indirect methods targeting biomarkers constitute an alternative to extend detection time frames in doping control analyses. Gene expression analysis (i.e., transcriptomics) has already shown interesting results in both humans and equines for erythropoietin (EPO), growth hormone (GH), and anabolic androgenic steroid (AAS) misuses. In humans, circulating cell-free microRNAs in plasma were described as new potential biomarkers for control of major doping agen...
Muñoz-Prieto A, Escribano D, Contreras-Aguilar MD, Horvatić A, Guillemin N, Jacobsen S, Cerón JJ, Mrljak V.The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in the salivary proteome in horses with acute abdominal disease (AAD) using a tandem mass tags (TMT)-based proteomic approach. The saliva samples from eight horses with AAD were compared with six healthy horses in the proteomic study. Additionally, saliva samples from eight horses with AAD and eight controls were used to validate lactoferrin (LF) in saliva. The TMT analysis quantified 118 proteins. Of these, 17 differed significantly between horses with AAD and the healthy controls, 11 being downregulated and 6 upregulated. Our results showe...
Muko R, Matsuda H, Oikawa MA, Shin T, Matsuda K, Sato H, Sunouchi T, Tanaka A.Histidine-rich glycoprotein (HRG) is an abundant plasma protein that has been identified in most mammals. We first identified whole genome sequence of equine HRG (eHRG) and succeeded to purify eHRG from plasma of horses. Since HRG interacts with various ligands, this protein is thought to be involved in immune response, coagulation, and angiogenesis. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) is characterized as a non-specific, clinical, pro-inflammatory immune response that damage organs and tissues in the host. Recent reports revealed that blood HRG levels in human patients with SIRS are...
Slowikowska M, Bajzert J, Miller J, Stefaniak T, Niedzwiedz A.Non-invasive diagnostic biomarkers of equine asthma syndrome (EAS) from blood or urine are sought. The aim of this study was to assess the absorbance of circulating immune complexes (CICs) during the exacerbation, remission, and treatment of an asthma episode and assess the potential usefulness of CIC levels in the diagnosis and monitoring of the disease. The control group, asthma group, and treated asthma group each contained six horses. Following an initial examination and group classification, the horses were kept in a dusty environment for seven days and then moved to an asthma-friendly en...
Ryan D, McKemie DS, Kass PH, Puschner B, Knych HK.The increasing availability of cannabidiol (CBD) and anecdotal reports of its anti-inflammatory effects has garnered it much interest in the equine industry. The objectives of the current study were to (1) describe the pharmacokinetics of oral CBD in exercising thoroughbreds, (2) characterize select behavioral and physiologic effects, and (3) evaluate effects on biomarkers of inflammation using an ex vivo model. This study was conducted in a randomized balanced 3-way crossover design with a two-week washout period between doses. Horses received a single oral dose (0.5, 1, and 2 mg/kg) of CBD...
Kim J, Park Y, Kim EJ, Jung H, Yoon M.Oxytocin (OXT) and serotonin (5-HT) are essential neurotransmitters associated with the behavior of animals. Recently, we found that the plasma concentration of OXT is positively correlated with horse docility and friendliness toward humans. However, the relationships between the neurotransmitters and other temperaments such as fearfulness, dominance, and trainability are unknown. This study aimed to identify whether the plasma concentration of OXT or 5-HT is correlated with fearfulness, dominance, and trainability of horses. Blood samples of 34 horses were collected at the Horse Industry Comp...
Lee S, Baker ME, Clinton M, Taylor SE.Despite many recent advances in imaging and epidemiological data analysis, musculoskeletal injuries continue to be a welfare issue in racehorses. Peptide biomarker studies have failed to consistently predict bone injury. Molecular profiling studies provide an opportunity to study equine musculoskeletal disease. A systematic review of the literature was performed using preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses protocols (PRISMA-P) guidelines to assess the use of miRNA profiling studies in equine and human musculoskeletal injuries. Data were extracted from 40 papers betw...
Noordwijk KJ, Qin R, Diaz-Rubio ME, Zhang S, Su J, Mahal LK, Reesink HL.Carpal osteochondral fragmentation and subsequent post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) are leading causes of wastage in the equine athlete. Identification of synovial fluid biomarkers could contribute to the diagnosis and understanding of osteoarthritis (OA) pathophysiology. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify differentially expressed metabolic and glycosylation pathways in synovial fluid from healthy horses and horses with naturally occurring carpal OA. Methods: Cross-sectional, in vivo metabolomics and glycomics study. Methods: In cohort 1, carpal synovial fluid (n = 12 horses...
Minamijima Y, Niwa H, Uchida E, Yamamoto K.In the past decade, mass spectrometry has become an important technology for protein identification. Recent developments in mass spectrometry allow a large number of identifications in samples; therefore, mass-spectrometry-based techniques have been applied to the discovery of biomarkers. Here, we conducted a proteomic study to compare the proteomes in sera between healthy Thoroughbreds and Thoroughbreds with respiratory disease associated with transport (RDT). We found that four proteins, apolipoprotein F, lipopolysaccharide binding protein, lysozyme and protein S100-A8, were upregulated, whi...
Keen B, Cawley A, Fouracre C, Pyke J, Fu S.The emergence of novel doping agents is a continuous issue for analysts who aim to maintain the integrity of horseracing together with the well-being and safety of the animals and riders involved. Untargeted mass spectrometric analysis presents a potential improvement for antidoping as it enables the detection of compounds being indirectly affected by an administered drug. In this study, liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry was used to investigate a 12-horse administration study of the synthetic opioid, butorphanol. A mass spectrometric workflow capable of detecting metaboli...
Meeremans M, Van Damme L, De Spiegelaere W, Van Vlierberghe S, De Schauwer C.(1) Background: Tendinopathy is a common injury in both human and equine athletes. Representative in vitro models are mandatory to facilitate translation of fundamental research into successful clinical treatments. Natural biomaterials like gelatin provide favorable cell binding characteristics and are easily modifiable. In this study, methacrylated gelatin (gel-MA) and norbornene-functionalized gelatin (gel-NB), crosslinked with 1,4-dithiotreitol (DTT) or thiolated gelatin (gel-SH) were compared. (2) Methods: The physicochemical properties (H-NMR spectroscopy, gel fraction, swelling ratio, an...
Rossi TM, Kavsak PA, Maxie MG, Pearl DL, Pyle WG, Physick-Sheard PW.Accumulating evidence indicates intense exercise can be associated with myocardial damage. Investigating the impact of maximal effort on myocardium and exploring possible association of injury with rhythm disturbance requires a high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assay. The objectives of this study were: (1) to determine the effect of racing on serum cardiac troponin I (cTnI) in Standardbred horses using a high-sensitivity assay; (2) to determine the 99th percentile of cTnI in healthy horses and investigate the effect of demographic variables on cTnI prevailing pre-race in Standardbred horses us...
Fedorka CE, Ball BA, Walker OF, McCormick ME, Scoggin KE, Kennedy LA, Squires EL, Troedsson MHT.Equine abortions are attributed to both infectious and noninfectious causes. Clinical extrapolations are often made from the experimental model for ascending placentitis towards other causes of fetal compromise, including various markers of inflammation, including the cytokines IL-2, 5, IL-6, IL-10, IFNγ, and TNF. It is unknown if these cytokine changes are noted under field conditions, or if they increase preceding other pregnancy related complications. To assess this, Thoroughbred mares (n = 702) had weekly blood obtained beginning in December 2013 and continuing until parturition. Fet...
Lindåse S, Nostell K, Bergsten P, Forslund A, Bröjer J.Proxies are mathematical calculations based on fasting glucose and/or insulin concentrations developed to allow prediction of insulin sensitivity (IS) and β-cell response. These proxies have not been evaluated in horses with insulin dysregulation. The first objective of this study was to evaluate how fasting insulin (FI) and proxies for IS (1/Insulin, reciprocal of the square root of insulin (RISQI) and the quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI)) and β-cell response (the modified insulin-to-glucose ratio (MIRG) and the homeostatic model assessment of β-cell function (HOMA-β)...
Jacobsen S.Serum amyloid A (SAA) has become an indispensable part of the management of equine patients in general practice and specialized hospital settings. Although several proteins possess acute phase properties in horses, the usefulness of SAA exceeds that of other acute phase proteins. This is due to the highly desirable kinetics of the equine SAA response. SAA concentrations exhibit a rapid and pronounced increase in response to inflammation and a rapid decline after the resolution of inflammation. This facilitates the detection of inflammatory disease and real-time monitoring of inflammatory activ...
Okumura M, Tagami M, Fujinaga T.The role of keratan sulphate (KS) as a marker of cartilage metabolism was evaluated by using an in vitro model of equine articular cartilage. Articular cartilage was harvested from clinically healthy 6-month-old foals (n=3). Chondrocytes were centrifuged and cultured as pellets. Chondrocyte pellets were stimulated by insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-Ialpha or interleukin (IL)-1alpha for 2 weeks. The sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAG) and antigenic KS concentrations in the culture media were measured by a 1,9-dimethyl-methylene blue (DMMB) colorimetric assay and an inhibition ELISA using a 1/14/...
Panizzi L, Dittmer KE, Vignes M, Doucet JS, Gedye K, Waterland MR, Rogers CW, Sano H, McIlwraith CW, Riley CB.Biomarkers for osteoarthritis (OA) in horses have been extensively investigated, but translation into clinical use has been limited due to cost, limited sensitivity, and practicality. Identifying novel biomarkers that overcome these limitations could facilitate early diagnosis and therapy. This study aimed to compare the concentrations of synovial fluid (SF) and plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) over time in control horses with those with induced carpal OA. Following an established model, unilateral carpal OA was induced in 9 of 17 healthy Thoroughbred fillies, while the remainder were sham-operate...
Sallé G, Canlet C, Cortet J, Koch C, Malsa J, Reigner F, Riou M, Perrot N, Blanchard A, Mach N.The widespread failure of anthelmintic drugs against nematodes of veterinary interest requires novel control strategies. Selective treatment of the most susceptible individuals could reduce drug selection pressure but requires appropriate biomarkers of the intrinsic susceptibility potential. To date, this has been missing in livestock species. Here, we selected Welsh ponies with divergent intrinsic susceptibility (measured by their egg excretion levels) to cyathostomin infection and found that their divergence was sustained across a 10-year time window. Using this unique set of individuals, we...
Biondi V, Landi A, Pugliese M, Merola G, Passantino A.This study aimed to evaluate possible abnormalities in electrocardiographic findings, and changes in cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and inflammatory biomarkers (serum amyloid A (SAA) and C-reactive protein (CRP)) after inactivated herpesvirus vaccine administration. Eighteen healthy horses were included. All animals were vaccinated with Pneumoequine (Merial, France) according to the protocol provided by the manufacturer. They were evaluated 1 day before the first dose of vaccination (D0), and 7 days (D1) and 14 days (D2) afterwards. At D0, D1, and D2, a blood sample was taken for the evaluation of ...
Kitamura H, Okumura M, Sato F, Kimoto K, Kohama M, Hashimoto Y, Tagami M, Iwanaga T.Our previous study established protein gene product 9.5 (PGP 9.5), a ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase, as a specific cytochemical marker of synovial lining cells (type B synoviocytes) in the horse joint. The present study aimed to detect PGP 9.5 in the synovial fluid and shows that PGP 9.5 is a valuable marker of osteoarthritis in the horse. Immunohistochemical staining confirmed rich and consistent localization of PGP 9.5 immunoreactivity in the cytoplasm of synovial lining cells in the normal horse joint. Western blot analysis of synovial fluid from normal joints could detect a significant ban...
Yu F, Chen Y, Liu B, Wang T, Ding Z, Yi Z, Zhu Y, Li J.Health monitoring is critical for newborn animals due to their vulnerability to diseases. Urine can be not only a useful and non-invasive tool (free-catch samples) to reflect the physiological status of animals but also to help monitor the progression of diseases. Proteomics involves the study of the whole complement of proteins and peptides, including structure, quantities, functions, variations and interactions. In this study, urinary proteomics of neonatal donkeys were characterized and compared to the profiles of adult donkeys to provide a reference database for healthy neonatal donkeys. T...
Tou K, Cawley A, Bowen C, Sornalingam K, Fu S.The conventional detection of exogenous drugs in equine doping samples has been used for confirmation and subsequent prosecution of participants responsible. In recent years, alternative methods using indirect detection have been investigated due to the expanding number of pharmaceutical agents available with the potential of misuse. The monitoring of endogenous biomarkers such as hydrocortisone (HC) has been studied in equine urine with an international threshold of 1 μg/ml established; however, there is no current threshold for equine plasma. The aim of this research was to investigate pl...
Lawson EF, Grupen CG, Baker MA, Aitken RJ, Swegen A, Pollard CL, Gibb Z.Lipids are dynamic biological molecules that play key roles in metabolism, inflammation, cell signalling and structure. They are biologically significant in the physiology of conception and reproduction. Many of the mechanisms surrounding equine conception and the early feto-maternal dialogue are yet to be understood at a biochemical level. Recently, lipidomic technologies have advanced considerably and analytical strategies have been enhanced and diversified. Consequently, in-depth lipidomic exploration now has the potential to reveal new lipid biomarkers and biochemical relationships that im...
Rossi TM, Kavsak PA, Maxie MG, Pearl DL, Pyle WG, Physick-Sheard PW.Accumulating evidence indicates intense exercise can be associated with myocardial damage. Investigating the impact of maximal effort on myocardium and exploring possible association of injury with rhythm disturbance requires a high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assay. The objectives of this study were: (1) to determine the effect of racing on serum cardiac troponin I (cTnI) in Standardbred horses using a high-sensitivity assay; (2) to determine the 99th percentile of cTnI in healthy horses and investigate the effect of demographic variables on cTnI prevailing pre-race in Standardbred horses us...
Fazio F, Cicero N, Piccione G, Giannetto C, Licata P.Mercury (Hg) exists in various chemical forms, and it is different to health effects. The most toxic effects occur in the central nervous system during fetal development with irreversible alterations of the nerve cells of the cerebral cortex and, it is essential to monitor the tissue residues of Hg to protect the animal's health. The present investigation was carried out during May 2019 in 20 horses located in equine sport center near the area of Milazzo, Messina, that is a part of Sicilian territory heavily polluted by many toxic substances. The purpose of this study was to determine the conc...
Schleining JA, McClure SR, Evans RB, Hyde WG, Wulf LW, Kind AJ.Lameness as a result of joint disease is a major source of decreased athletic performance in the horse. Most treatment protocols include the administration of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Phenylbutazone, alone or in combination with other treatments, is the most commonly and widely used NSAID, however it has the potential for serious side effects. The introduction of the liposome-based formulation of the NSAID diclofenac has shown promising effect as a safe and convenient treatment for lameness associated with osteoarthritis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effe...
Hallamaa R, Batchu K.Lipids have become an important target for searching new biomarkers typical of different autoimmune and allergic diseases. The most common allergic dermatitis of the horse is related to stings of insects and is known as insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) or summer eczema, referring to its recurrence during the summer months. This intense pruritus has certain similarities with atopic dermatitis of humans. The treatment of IBH is difficult and therefore new strategies for therapy are needed. Autoserum therapy based on the use of serum phospholipids has recently been introduced for horses. So far...
Tavanaeimanesh H, Dashli-Boroon OJ, Corley K.Understanding the physiological and biochemical changes in racehorses can be invaluable. Accurate information in this area could result in better understanding of needs of sport horses. The aim of this study was to prove the hypothesis that biochemical changes could influence the outcome of competitions. In this study, β-endorphin was evaluated as an indicator of analgesia, lactate as an indicator of fatigue and cortisol as an indicator of stress in the first two horses and the last ones that cross the finish line. This study was performed on 44 horses participating in the 1000-meter national...
Schwarm A, Clauss M, Ortmann S, Jensen RB.Sieve analyses of hindgut contents of horses as well as observations in horses where plastic markers had been applied to a caecal cannula suggested that there may be a discrimination by particle size in the passage or retention of digesta. Here, we performed a similar experiment with five caecum-cannulated horses (562 ± 31 kg) fed a constant amount (6.81 kg dry matter/day) of grass hay. Passage markers representing the liquid (Co-EDTA) as well as the particulate digesta phase (Yb-undefined; Cr mordanted fibre 1-2 mm; Ce-mordanted fibre 8 mm) were given as a pulse-dose into the can...
Witkowski M, Pardyak L, Pawlicki P, Galuszka A, Profaska-Szymik M, Plachno BJ, Kantor S, Duliban M, Kotula-Balak M.Cryptorchidism in horses is a commonly occurring malformation. The molecular basis of this pathology is not fully known. In addition, the origins of high intratesticular estrogen levels in horses remain obscure. In order to investigate the role of the G-protein-coupled membrane estrogen receptor (GPER) and establish histological and biochemical cryptorchid testis status, healthy and cryptorchid horse testes were subjected to scanning electron microscopy analysis, histochemical staining for total protein (with naphthol blue black; NBB), acid content (with toluidine blue O; TBO), and polysacchar...
Semik-Gurgul E, Szmatoła T, Gurgul A, Pawlina-Tyszko K, Gałuszka A, Pędziwiatr R, Witkowski M, Ząbek T.DNA methylation is a key mechanism in transcription regulation, and aberrant methylation is a common and important mechanism in tumor initiation, maintenance, and progression. To find genes that are aberrantly regulated by altered methylation in horse sarcoids, we used reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) accompanied by RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) for methylome (whole genome DNA methylation sequencing) and transcriptome profiling, respectively. We found that the DNA methylation level was generally lower in lesion samples than in controls. In the analyzed samples, a total of 14,692 d...
Tesena P, Yingchutrakul Y, Roytrakul S, Wongtawan T, Angkanaporn K.Equine Glandular Gastric Disease (EGGD) is a common disease in sport horses. This disease might be associated with usage of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for treating inflammatory diseases. Although gastroscopy has been an effective method for diagnosis, but a less invasive, and inexpensive method is preferred. This study used proteomic technology to identify candidate serum proteins that might be used as markers of NSAIDs induced EGGD. Five Thoroughbred horses were given high doses of NSAID, phenylbutazone to treat lameness. The experiment was divided into three periods: (i) P...
Lindåse S, Nostell K, Bergsten P, Forslund A, Bröjer J.Proxies are mathematical calculations based on fasting glucose and/or insulin concentrations developed to allow prediction of insulin sensitivity (IS) and β-cell response. These proxies have not been evaluated in horses with insulin dysregulation. The first objective of this study was to evaluate how fasting insulin (FI) and proxies for IS (1/Insulin, reciprocal of the square root of insulin (RISQI) and the quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI)) and β-cell response (the modified insulin-to-glucose ratio (MIRG) and the homeostatic model assessment of β-cell function (HOMA-β)...
Armengou L, Jose-Cunilleras E, Ríos J, Cesarini C, Viu J, Monreal L.Sick neonatal foals suffer from a variety of endocrine and metabolic derangements that may be related to outcome. There are several hepatic and lipid metabolism blood markers that have never been assessed in neonatal foals. Objective: Assess panel of endocrine and metabolic variables in group of sick and healthy neonatal foals in order to describe their relationship with diagnosis and survival. Methods: All neonatal foals referred to Unitat Equina-Fundació Hospital Clínic Veterinari during 3 consecutive foaling seasons and a group of healthy foals. Methods: Observational prospective study. B...
Muko R, Matsuda H, Oikawa MA, Shin T, Matsuda K, Sato H, Sunouchi T, Tanaka A.Histidine-rich glycoprotein (HRG) is an abundant plasma protein that has been identified in most mammals. We first identified whole genome sequence of equine HRG (eHRG) and succeeded to purify eHRG from plasma of horses. Since HRG interacts with various ligands, this protein is thought to be involved in immune response, coagulation, and angiogenesis. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) is characterized as a non-specific, clinical, pro-inflammatory immune response that damage organs and tissues in the host. Recent reports revealed that blood HRG levels in human patients with SIRS are...
Hellings IR, Krontveit R, Øverlie M, Kallmyr A, Holm T, Fintl C.Elevated cardiac troponin T (cTnT) concentrations may provide evidence of myocardial injury but physiological post-exercise release also occurs. Reference intervals are not fully established in horses making interpretation difficult. The aims of this study were to establish an upper reference limit for serum cTnT, compare pre-and post-race serum cTnT concentrations, and to evaluate factors that may influence these in a population of healthy, race-fit Standardbred racehorses. Serum samples were collected pre- (n = 108) and 1-2 h post-racing (n = 101) and analysed using a high sensitivity-cTnT a...
Poltep K, Tesena P, Yingchutrakul Y, Taylor J, Wongtawan T.Silent gastric ulceration occurs without evidence of clinical signs and is common in horses. There is currently no a simple and effective method to diagnose this disease. Proteomics can be used to identify serum biomarkers, but the most abundant serum protein, albumin, could conceal candidate biomarkers. Therefore, it is recommended to remove albumin before a proteomic study; however, there is no specific albumin depletion kit or standard protocol available for horse samples. The objectives of this study were to optimise a protocol to remove equine serum albumin and to use albumin-depleted ser...
Mienaltowski MJ, Huang L, Bathke AC, Stromberg AJ, MacLeod JN.Human and equine cell transplant strategies for cartilage lesions usually result in scar tissue that is similar to what is produced naturally during the repair process. In this study, culture-expanded de-differentiated chondrocytes and primary bone marrow stromal cells at a pre-transplantation time-point were compared along with neonatal cartilage to repair tissue. Transcriptional profiling using a 9413-probeset equine-specific cDNA microarray and targeted real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction validation were used to characterize relationships between these cell types and repair tis...
Boere J, van de Lest CHA, de Grauw JC, Plomp SGM, Libregts SFWM, Arkesteijn GJA, Malda J, Wauben MHM, van Weeren PR.Extracellular vesicle (EV) concentration, characteristics and function in equine synovial fluid (SF) during normal growth and development has not previously been studied. Isolation of EVs was performed in SF from three healthy foals and two adult horses by differential ultracentrifugation (10,000g and 200,000g); EVs were purified by sucrose density gradient floatation and analysed by high-resolution flow cytometry (FCM), buoyant density and western blotting. Additionally, repeated biomarker analysis of sulphated glycosaminoglycans (GAG), matrix metalloproteinase (MMP), C-terminal crosslinked t...
Bailly-Chouriberry L, Chu-Van E, Pinel G, Garcia P, Popot MA, André-Fontaine G, Bonnaire Y, Le Bizec B.Since the Australian commercialisation of the recombinant equine growth hormone (reGH) in 1998 (EquiGen-5), Bresagen), this reGH, which differs only from eGH by an additional methionine at the N-terminal end (met-eGH), is worldwide suspected to be administered to racehorses as a doping agent. Indeed, the use of this biological drug is considered as a threat to horseracing since it acts both on growth, development or reproductive functions, and on the improvement of performances. In this work, we describe two reliable techniques based on surface plasmon resonance biosensor immunoassay (SPR-BIA)...
Krakowski L, Brodzki P, Krakowska I, Opielak G, Marczuk J, Piech T.The aim of the study was to determine the level of prolactin (PRL), serum amyloid A (SAA), and selected biochemical markers (T-Chol, AST, TP, Mg, P, and Ca) in the blood of mares during the perinatal period. The study involved 14 mares of the Polish Coldblood Horse breed, which were in the third trimester of pregnancy. Blood was collected for testing 2 weeks before parturition and then 24 hours after delivery and in the foal heat (9 days) and 9 days after ovulation and breeding. The research revealed significant differences in the level of PRL and SAA before and after delivery. The highest...
Żak A, Siwińska N, Chełmecka E, Bażanów B, Romuk E, Adams A, Niedźwiedź A, Stygar D.The study aims to assess the impact of age, pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID) and insulin dysregulation (ID) in horses on selected oxidative stress markers. The study includes 32 horses, divided into three groups: "young" adult group (aged 8-16 years old) "geriatric" group (aged 18-24 years old) and the "PPID" group (aged 15-31 years old). The PPID group was further divided into two subgroups: PPID ID+ and PPID ID- based on presence or absence of ID. We measured serum antioxidant stress markers in all horses: total oxidant status (TOS), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), ceruloplasmi...
Kim J, Jung H, Choi JY, Lee JW, Yoon M.Dopamine (DA) is known to be a key modulator of animal behaviors. Thus, the plasma concentration of DA might be used as a biomarker for the behavioral characteristics of horses. The behavioral characteristics of horses vary depending on the breed, age, and sex. Moreover, the DA receptor genotypes are also related to horse behaviors. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the DA concentration variations of horse plasma by breed, age, sex, or genotype of its receptor. The horses were divided by breed into Thoroughbred (n = 13), Pony (n = 9), Warmblood (n = 4), and Haflinger (n = 5). The ...
Alberghina D, Amorini AM, Lazzarino G.To evaluate the changes in plasma and platelet serotonin (5-HT) as markers of the serotoninergic system in equines, 5-HT content was measured by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in deproteinized plasma obtained from peripheral blood samples of 12 clinically healthy horses, before and after feeding. 5-HT was measured in platelet rich plasma (PRP) and in platelet poor plasma (PPP). 5-HT in platelets (p5-HT) was obtained by subtracting free 5-HT in PPP (f5-HT) from 5-HT in PRP. After food ingestion, significant increases in p5-HT and f5-HT (p < 0.001), and no changes in the f5-HT/p5-...
