Experimental methods in equine research encompass a variety of techniques and procedures used to investigate physiological, behavioral, and health-related aspects of horses. These methods are designed to collect data that can enhance the understanding of equine biology and inform veterinary practices. Common experimental approaches include controlled trials, observational studies, and laboratory-based experiments. Techniques may involve the use of non-invasive imaging, biochemical assays, and physiological monitoring to assess parameters such as metabolic function, locomotion, and disease progression. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the application, development, and evaluation of experimental methods in the study of equine science.
Evans JP, Meckstroth S, Garai J.Rhizomatous growth and associated physiological integration can allow a clonal dune species to potentially compensate for the selective removal of leaves associated with herbivory. is a rhizomatous clonal plant species that is abundant in the coastal dune environments of the southeastern United States that are inhabited by large feral horse populations. has been shown to integrate resources among ramets within extensive clones as an adaptation to resource heterogeneity in sandy soils. In this study, we hypothesized that clonal integration is a mechanism that promotes persistence in these co...
Davis MS, Barrett MR.Mitochondrial function-oxidative phosphorylation and the generation of reactive oxygen species-is critical in both health and disease. Thus, measuring mitochondrial function is fundamental in biomedical research. Skeletal muscle is a robust source of mitochondria, particularly in animals with a very high aerobic capacity, such as horses, making them ideal subjects for studying mitochondrial physiology. This article demonstrates the use of high-resolution respirometry with concurrent fluorometry, with freshly harvested skeletal muscle mitochondria, to quantify the capacity to oxidize substrates...
Foreman-Hesterberg CR, Foreman JH.Muscle damage can result in leakage of intracellular enzymes such as creatine kinase (CK) and aspartate transaminase (AST) into plasma. There are no controlled documentations of the effects of intramuscular antibiotic drug administration on plasma CK and AST activities in horses. The objective of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that 5 days of intramuscular procaine penicillin G injection in normal horses would result in increased plasma activities of CK and AST. Nine healthy adult horses were sampled for 7 days preceding, 5 days during, and 32 days following procaine penicillin G (2...
MacNicol JL, Renwick S, Ganobis CM, Allen-Vercoe E, Weese JS, Pearson W.The microbes that reside within the equine hindgut create a complex and dynamic ecosystem. The equine hindgut microbiota is intimately associated with health and, as such, represents an area which can be beneficially modified. Synbiotics, supplements that combine probiotic micro-organisms with prebiotic ingredients, are a potential means of influencing the hindgut microbiota to promote health and prevent disease. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the influence of an equine probiotic/prebiotic supplement on characteristics of the microbiota and metabolite production in vitro. E...
Watkins AR, Ford M, van Eps AW, Stefanovski D, Parente EJ.This study investigated the elongation following cyclic loading on square knots of 5 USP multifilament long-chain ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene core (UHMWPE), 2 mm woven UHMWPE tape, and 5 USP braided polyester, with and without cyanoacrylate glue. Methods: Experimental study. Methods: n = 4. Methods: Three conditions (suture without knot, suture with knot, suture with knot + cyanoacrylate) were evaluated for each suture material on a mechanical test stand by measuring the increased length of the construct after cycling from 25 to 50N for 1000 repetitions at 20 mm/second. Knot...
Vitoria A, Romero A, Barrachina L, Fuente S, Gil L, de Blas I, Vázquez Bringas FJ.Most previously described techniques for laparoscopic inguinal hernioplasty (IH) in horses require advanced laparoscopic skills. Our objective was to describe a new laparoscopic IH technique using a surgical anchoring system. Methods: Standing laparoscopic IH was performed unilaterally in eight experimental stallions, using the contralateral inguinal canal (IC) as a control. A polyether ether ketone harpoon was anchored in the craniolateral aspect of the vaginal ring, and an extracorporeal knot was used to fix the device. Clinical evaluation, including testicular palpation and lameness examina...
Bannai H, Kambayashi Y, Nemoto M, Ohta M, Tsujimura K.The immune response and protective efficacy of a modified equid alphaherpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) vaccine administered by two different routes were tested in horses. Horses that received intramuscular (IM) priming and an intranasal (IN) booster with a 28-day interval (IM-IN group [n = 6]), IN priming and IM booster (IN-IM group [n = 5]), or no vaccination (control group [n = 6]) were challenged with EHV-1 strain 10-I-224 28 days after the second vaccination. Both vaccinated groups had significantly higher serum virus-neutralizing titers than the control group, with increased levels of ser...
La Rosa L, Twele L, Duchateau L, Gasthuys F, Kästner SB, Schauvliege S.To study the antinociceptive properties of epidural magnesium sulphate (MgSO) in standing horses Experimental, placebo-controlled, masked, cross-over A group of six healthy horses Through an epidural catheter, 1 mg kg MgSO (treatment Mg) diluted to a volume of 15 mL or the same volume of saline (treatment S) was administered over 15 minutes. Electrical, thermal and mechanical nociceptive thresholds were determined on the pelvic limb before and 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160 and 180 minutes after the start of the injection. Heart rate (HR) and respiratory frequency (f) were recorded every ...
Boorman S, Hanson RR, Velloso Alvarez A, Zhong K, Hofmeister E, Boone LH.To determine the effect of concurrent versus delayed treatment with corticosteroid on equine articular tissues also treated with local anesthetic in vitro in the presence of inflammatory mediators. Methods: Controlled laboratory study. Methods: Five geldings, one mare (aged 3-18 years). Methods: From each horse, 24 synovial and 12 osteochondral explants were cultured in a 12-well plate (2 wells/group, 2 synovial and 1 osteochondral explant/well, total 216 explants in the study). Explants were stimulated in culture medium with 10 μg/ml recombinant equine interleukin-1β and 10 μg/ml tumor...
Stewart AS, Schaaf CR, Veerasammy B, Freund JM, Gonzalez LM.Equine intestinal epithelial stem cells (ISCs) serve as potential targets to treat horses with severe intestinal injury. The ability to isolate and store ISCs from intestinal biopsies creates an opportunity for both in vitro experiments to study ISC dynamics in a variety of intestinal diseases, and, in the future, utilize these cells as a possible therapy. If biopsies could be successfully stored prior to processing for ISCs, this would increase the availability of sample repositories for future experimental and therapeutic use. However, delayed culture of equine ISCs following prolonged sampl...
Maney JK, Dzikiti BT, Escobar A, Knych HK, Bennett RC.Morphine is the prototypical μ-opioid receptor agonist used to provide analgesia in veterinary species. Its effects are well-described in horses but not donkeys. Objective: To determine the antinociceptive effects of two doses of morphine in donkeys. To describe preliminary pharmacokinetic parameters of morphine in donkeys. Methods: In vivo experiment. Methods: Eight adult castrated male donkeys were given intravenous (IV) 0.9% saline, morphine 0.1 mg/kg bwt (LDM), or morphine 0.5 mg/kg bwt (HDM) in a randomised order with a minimum 1-week washout period. Mechanical nociceptive thresholds (...
Macon EL, Harris P, Bailey S, Caldwell Barker A, Adams A.Identifying intake levels of nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) that limit the postprandial insulinaemic response in the insulin dysregulated (ID) horse may help reduce hyperinsulinaemia-associated laminitis (HAL) risk. Objective: To determine if ID horses have thresholds for pure sources of starch and sugar, above which there is an augmented insulin response. Methods: Randomised crossover experiment. Methods: Fourteen adult horses (6 ID and 8 noninsulin dysregulated, NID; matched for bodyweight) were randomly fed eight dietary treatments. Dietary treatments were formulated using a base of low...
Spoormakers TJP, St George L, Smit IH, Hobbs SJ, Brommer H, Clayton HM, Roy SH, Richards J, Serra Bragança FM.The inter-relationship between equine thoracolumbar motion and muscle activation during normal locomotion and lameness is poorly understood. Objective: To compare thoracolumbar and pelvic kinematics and longissimus dorsi (longissimus) activity of trotting horses between baseline and induced forelimb (iFL) and hindlimb (iHL) lameness. Methods: Controlled experimental cross-over study. Methods: Three-dimensional kinematic data from the thoracolumbar vertebrae and pelvis, and bilateral surface electromyography (sEMG) data from longissimus at T14 and L1, were collected synchronously from clinicall...
Schubert CL, Ryckewaert B, Pereira C, Matsuzawa T.This study aimed to use a computer-controlled touchscreen system to examine visual discrimination in Garrano horses (), an endangered breed of pony belonging to the Iberian horse family. This pilot study focused on the perceptual similarity among letters of the alphabet. We tested five horses in a one-male unit (OMU) living permanently in a semi-free enclosure near their natural habitat in Serra d'Arga, northern Portugal. Horses were trained to nose-touch black circles that appeared on the screen. Then, they were tested for discrimination of five letters of the Latin alphabet in Arial font, na...
DeBoer M, Konop A, Fisher B.Horses are often blanketed during cold weather for numerous reasons including assisting thermoregulation, cleanliness, and anecdotally to decrease hair coat length. However, the impact of blanketing on the hair coat has yet to be evaluated. The objective of this study was to evaluate changes in hair coat length and diameter over time in blanketed and nonblanketed horses during winter. In October 2019, 16 mature adult horses were blocked by breed and BCS and randomly assigned to a blanketed (n = 8) or nonblanketed (n = 8) treatment; blankets were placed. Data was collected between October 2...
Rooney MF, Neto NGB, Monaghan MG, Hill EW, Porter RK.Thoroughbred racehorse performance is largely influenced by a major quantitative trait locus at the () gene which determines aptitude for certain race distances due to a promoter region insertion mutation influencing functional phenotypes in skeletal muscle. To develop an system for functional experiments we established three novel equine skeletal muscle cell lines reflecting the variation in phenotype associated with genotype (CC/II, CT/IN and TT/NN for SNP g.66493737CÂ >Â T/SINE insertion 227 bp polymorphism). Primary equine skeletal muscle myoblasts, isolated from Thoroughbred horse , we...
Aguiar CS, Barros CHSC, Machado WM, Allaman IB, Leite AO, Barbosa LP, Snoeck PPDN.The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of different concentrations of Trolox and the addition of a fixed concentration of DHA in the freezing of semen of Mangalarga Marchador stallions. To that end, 16 ejaculates were frozen in the following extenders: E1) BotuCrio (BC; Control); E2) BC + 50 ngml DHA + 30 µM Trolox (BCDHA30T); E3) BC + 50 ngml DHA + 40 µM Trolox (BCDHA40T); E4) BC + 50 ngml DHA + 50 µM Trolox (BCDHA50T). All the tested extenders were similar in preserving different kinematic parameters, cell functional integrity, compacted DNA, and high and intermediate mitoc...
Clarke EJ, Johnson E, Caamaño Gutierrez E, Andersen C, Berg LC, Jenkins RE, Lindegaard C, Uvebrant K, Lundgren-Åkerlund E, Turlo A, James V....Equine osteoarthritis (OA) is a heterogeneous, degenerative disease of the musculoskeletal system with multifactorial causation, characterized by a joint metabolic imbalance. Extracellular vesicles are nanoparticles involved in intracellular communication. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy is a form of regenerative medicine that utilizes their properties to repair damaged tissues. Despite its wide use in veterinary practice, the exact mechanism of action of MSCs is not fully understood. The aim of this study was to determine the synovial fluid extracellular vesicle protein cargo following in...
Dobler D, Gerber M, Schmidts TM, Runkel F, Schlupp P.Human nail diseases, mostly caused by fungal infections, are common and difficult to treat. The development and testing of new drugs and drug delivery systems for the treatment of nail diseases is often limited by the lack of human nail material for permeation studies. Animal material is frequently used, but there are only few comparative data on the human nail plate, and there is neither a standardized test design nor a nail bed analogue to study drug uptake into the nail. In this study, a new permeation device was developed for permeation studies, and the permeation behavior of three model s...
Garland A, Wierenga C, McCrae P, Pearson W.The purpose of this study was to determine anti-inflammatory and/or chondroprotective effects of Equine Omega Complete (EOC) on cartilage explants stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Explants were aseptically prepared from the intercarpal joints of 17 market-weight pigs and placed in culture at 37°C for a total of 120 hours. For the final 96 hours, explants were conditioned with a simulated digestion extract of EOC (0, 36 or 180 μL/mL), and for the final 48 hours explants were stimulated with LPS (0 or 15µg/mL). Media was removed and replaced every 24 hours. Samples from the final 48 ...
Wolkowski DD, McCarthy RD, Schoonover MJ, Taylor JD, Eastman TG.Evaluate effects of acellular equine liquid amnion allograft (ELAA) injected into healthy equine joints. Methods: Randomized, blinded, controlled experiment. Methods: Eight healthy adult horses. Methods: One intercarpal joint (ICJ) of each horse was randomly assigned to be injected with 1.5Â ml of ELAA (treatment) while the contralateral ICJ was injected with 1.5Â ml of 0.9% NaCl (control). Subjective lameness evaluation, force plate analysis, and synovial fluid analysis, including interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) analysis, were performed before (day 0) and at days 1, 3, 5, and 10. S...
Janicka W, Wilk I, Próchniak T, Janczarek I.Virtual fencing is an innovative alternative to conventional fences. Different systems have been studied, including electric-impulse-free systems. We tested the potential of self-applied acoustic stimulus in deterring the horses from further movement. Thirty warmblood horses were individually introduced to a designated corridor leading toward a food reward (variant F) or a familiar horse (variant S). As the subject reached a distance of 30, 15 or 5 m from a finish line, an acute alarming sound was played. Generally, a sudden and unknown sound was perceived by horses as a threat causing an incr...
Haughan J, Ortved KF, Robinson MA.Gene therapy uses genetic modification of cells to produce a therapeutic effect. Defective or missing genes can be repaired or replaced, or gene expression can be modified using a variety of technologies. Repair of defective genes can be achieved using specialized gene editing tools. Gene addition promotes gene expression by introducing synthetic copies of genes of interest (transgenes) into cells where they are transcribed and translated into therapeutic proteins. Protein production can also be modified using therapies that regulate gene expression. Gene therapy is currently prohibited in bot...
Rutledge JJ, Paegelow J, Ritchey J, Singh A, Rizzi T, Murray C, Gilliam L, Crisman E, Williams NJ, Holbrook TC.The objective of this study was to determine the extent that nebulized glycosylated caffeic acid phenylether ester-4-O-alpha-D-glucopyranoside (G-CAPE) attenuates particulate-induced airway inflammation in healthy horses. Our hypothesis was that nebulization with G-CAPE would result in improved respiratory scores, higher arterial oxygen partial pressure, and less inflammatory airway infiltrates in horses with induced airway inflammation, compared with untreated controls. Five healthy adult horses were housed inside a climate controlled, closed barn on straw bedding and fed moldy grass hay for...
Sanclemente JL, Rivera-Velez SM, Horohov DW, Dasgupta N, Sanz MG.Foals that develop pulmonary ultrasonographic lesions on Rhodococcus equi (R. equi) endemic farms are treated with antibiotics because those at risk of developing clinical pneumonia (~20%) cannot be recognised early. Candidate biomarkers identified using metabolomics may aid targeted treatment strategies against R. equi. Objective: (1) To describe how foal ageing affects their plasma metabolome (birth to 8 weeks) and (2) to establish the effects that experimental infection with Rhodococcus equi (R. equi) has on foal metabolome. Methods: Experimental study. Methods: Nine healthy newborn foals...
Hodgson S, Bennett-Skinner P, Lancaster B, Upton S, Harris P, Ellis AD.These studies assessed the pressure forces exerted by horses to extract forage from haynets. Study 1 measured horse posture and pressure in Newtons (10 N = 1 kg Force) exerted on haynets when feeding from either a single (SH) or double layered (DH) haynet (3 kg Hay), hung low or high. Mean and maximum pull forces were higher for the DH vs. SH (DH: 81 ± 2 N, max 156 N; SH: 74 ± 2.9 N, max 121 N; p < 0.01). Horses pulled harder on low (max pull 144 ± 8 N) compared to high (109 ± 8 N; p < 0.05) hung haynets. Mean maximum angles (nose-poll-withers) recorded were 90° ± 9 for SH and 127Â...
Mainguy-Seers S, Beaudry F, Fernandez-Prada C, Martin JG, Lavoie JP.Extracellular vesicles (EVs) contribute to intercellular communication through the transfer of their rich cargo to recipient cells. The EVs produced by LPS-stimulated neutrophils from healthy humans and horses increase airway smooth muscle (ASM) proliferation, but the roles of neutrophil EVs in asthma are largely unexplored. The aim of this study was to determine whether neutrophil-derived EVs isolated during the remission or exacerbation of asthma influence ASM proliferation differentially. Peripheral blood neutrophils were collected during remission and exacerbation in eight horses affected ...
Shiang CA, Bonney C, Lazarus B, Meyers M, Jasiuk I.This study predicts analytically effective elastic moduli of substructures within an equine hoof wall. The hoof wall is represented as a composite material with a hierarchical structure comprised of a sequence of length scales. A bottom-up approach is employed. Thus, the outputs from a lower spatial scale serve as the inputs for the following scale. The models include the Halpin-Tsai model, composite cylinders model, a sutured interface model, and classical laminate theory. The length scales span macroscale, mesoscale, sub-mesoscale, microscale, sub-microscale, and nanoscale. The macroscale re...
Dechêne L, Colin M, Demazy C, Fransolet M, Niesten A, Arnould T, Serteyn D, Dieu M, Renard P.Osteoarthritis (OA) is a highly prevalent joint degenerative disease for which therapeutic treatments are limited or invasive. Cell therapy based on mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) is therefore seen as a promising approach for this disease, in both human and horses. As the regenerative potential of MSCs is mainly conferred by paracrine function, the goal of this study was to characterize the secreted proteins of muscle-derived MSCs (mdMSCs) in an in vitro model of OA to evaluate the putative clinical interest of mdMSCs as cell therapy for joint diseases like osteoarthritis. An equine ost...
Bowen RA, Nemeth NM.West Nile virus emerged recently in North America as a serious human and animal pathogen. This review summarizes the use of experimental infections with West Nile virus in diverse vertebrate species that have been used to answer fundamental questions about the host response, pathogenesis of West Nile virus infection and virus evolution. Results: West Nile virus has an extremely broad vertebrate host range. Infection of common species of birds has defined those with high vs. low potential to serve as amplifying hosts for the virus. In general, mammals (primates, horses, companion animals) are d...
Spaas JH, De Schauwer C, Cornillie P, Meyer E, Van Soom A, Van de Walle GR.Although the use of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) for the treatment of orthopaedic injuries in horses has been reported, no official guidelines exist that classify a particular cell as an equine MSC. Given the limited characterisation of peripheral blood (PB)-derived equine MSCs in particular, this study aimed to provide more detailed information in relation to this cell type. Mesenchymal stromal cells were isolated from equine PB samples and colony forming unit (CFU) assays as well as population doubling times (PDTs) (from P(0) to P(10)) were performed. Two types of colonies, 'fingerprint'...
Rikihisa Y, Perry BD.An ehrlichia was consistently isolated from the peripheral blood leukocyte fraction of ponies that had been experimentally infected with Potomac horse fever by whole blood transfusion from naturally infected horses. The organism was propagated in a human histiocyte cell line for 3 to 5 weeks and then inoculated intravenously or intradermally into healthy adult ponies. Clinical signs of Potomac horse fever, which varied in the degree of severity, occurred 9 to 14 days post-inoculation in all of the ponies. One pony died 20 days post-inoculation. The ehrlichial organism was reisolated in the hum...
Lange-Consiglio A, Perrini C, Tasquier R, Deregibus MC, Camussi G, Pascucci L, Marini MG, Corradetti B, Bizzaro D, De Vita B, Romele P, Parolini O....Administration of horse amniotic mesenchymal cells (AMCs) and their conditioned medium (AMC-CM) improves the in vivo recovery of spontaneous equine tendon lesions and inhibits in vitro proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). This process may involve microvesicles (MVs) as an integral component of cell-to-cell communication during tissue regeneration. In this study, the presence and type of MVs secreted by AMCs were investigated and the response of equine tendon cells to MVs was studied using a dose-response curve at different concentrations and times. Moreover, the ability ...
Allen WR, Wilsher S, Turnbull C, Stewart F, Ousey J, Rossdale PD, Fowden AL.The interacting influences of maternal size and fetal genotype on placental and fetal development in the mare were assessed by comparing conventional within-breed Thoroughbred (Tb-in-Tb, n = 7) and Pony (P-in-P, n = 7) control pregnancies established by artificial insemination (AI) with between-breed (Tb-in-P, n = 8; deprived in utero condition and P-in-Tb, n = 7; luxurious in utero condition) experimental pregnancies established by embryo transfer. All foals were born spontaneously and the mean (+/- SEM) duration of gestation in the two groups of control mares was significantly different (P <...
de Mattos Carvalho A, Alves AL, Golim MA, Moroz A, Hussni CA, de Oliveira PG, Deffune E.The purpose of this work was to isolate and cultivate mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) derived from equine adipose tissue and conduct cellular characterization with the following markers: CD90, CD44 and CD13. Adipose tissue collection was performed at the base of the horses' tails, followed by immediate isolation and cultivation of the MSC and posterior characterization by flow cytometry for the interspecies reaction test using mouse anti-rat CD90 monoclonal antibody (mAb), fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), and tests with specific mAb mouse anti-horse CD13 and mouse anti-horse CD44. The technique...
Issel CJ, Horohov DW, Lea DF, Adams WV, Hagius SD, McManus JM, Allison AC, Montelaro RC.We report here on a series of vaccine trials to evaluate the effectiveness of an inactivated equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) whole-virus vaccine and of a subunit vaccine enriched in EIAV envelope glycoproteins. The inactivated vaccine protected 14 of 15 immunized ponies from infection after challenge with at least 10(5) 50% tissue culture-infective doses of the homologous prototype strain of EIAV. In contrast, it failed to prevent infection in any of 15 immunized ponies that were challenged with the heterologous PV strain. Levels of PV virus replication and the development of disease, ho...
O'Rourke K, Perryman LE, McGuire TC.Equine infectious anaemia virus is related by genome sequence homology to human immunodeficiency virus, caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus and visna virus. Failure of the host to mount a strong neutralizing response detectable in vitro or to eliminate persistent infection in vivo characterizes lentivirus infections in the natural host. In this study the specificities and neutralizing activity of antibodies induced during experimental infection with equine infectious anaemia virus were investigated using antiviral ELISA, radioimmunoprecipitation and neutralization assays. ELISA antibody titre...
Fortier LA, Nixon AJ, Williams J, Cable CS.To isolate mesenchymal stem cells from adult horses and determine specific monolayer culture conditions required to enhance biochemically and phenotypically defined chondrocytic differentiation. Methods: 2 adult horse bone marrow donors without skeletal or hematologic abnormalities. Methods: Bone marrow was aspirated from the sternebra, and mesenchymal stem cells were isolated by centrifugation and cultured in monolayers. Subcultures were established in 24-well plates on day 13. Culture medium was harvested every 2 days, and culture of 12 of the 24 wells was terminated on day 6 and of the rema...
Bussche L, Van de Walle GR.Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have received much attention as a potential treatment of ischemic diseases, including ischemic tissue injury and cardiac failure. The beneficial effects of MSCs are thought to be mediated by their ability to provide proangiogenic factors, creating a favorable microenvironment that results in neovascularization and tissue regeneration. To study this in more detail and to explore the potential of the horse as a valuable translational model, the objectives of the present study were to examine the presence of angiogenic stimulating factors in the conditioned medium...
Darr CR, Varner DD, Teague S, Cortopassi GA, Datta S, Meyers SA.Stallion sperm rely primarily on oxidative phosphorylation for production of ATP used in sperm motility and metabolism. The objective of the study was to identify which substrates included in Biggers, Whitten, and Whittingham (BWW) media are key to optimal mitochondrial function through measurements of sperm motility parameters, mitochondrial oxygen consumption, and cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. It was expected that mitochondrial substrates, pyruvate and lactate, would support sperm motility and mitochondrial function better than the glycolytic substrate, glucose, due to d...
Ardanaz N, Vázquez FJ, Romero A, Remacha AR, Barrachina L, Sanz A, Ranera B, Vitoria A, Albareda J, Prades M, Zaragoza P, MartÃn-Burriel I....Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transplantation has become a promising therapeutic choice for musculoskeletal injuries. Joint-related disorders are highly prevalent in horses. Therefore, these animals are considered as suitable models for testing MSC-based therapies for these diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical and inflammatory responses to intra-articular single and repeat dose administration of autologous or of pooled allogeneic MSCs in healthy equine healthy joints. Six horses were intra-articularly injected with a single autologous dose of bone marrow derived MSCs...
Harrold SM, Cook SJ, Cook RF, Rushlow KE, Issel CJ, Montelaro RC.Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) infection of horses is characterized by recurring cycles of disease and viremia that typically progress to an inapparent infection in which clinical symptoms are absent as host immune responses maintain control of virus replication indefinitely. The dynamics of EIAV viremia and its association with disease cycles have been well characterized, but there has been to date no comprehensive quantitative analyses of the specific tissue sites of EIAV infection and replication in experimentally infected equids during acute disease episodes and during asymptomatic ...
Lu J, Guo Z, Pan X, Wang G, Zhang D, Li Y, Tan B, Ouyang L, Yu X.Avian influenza virus H5N1 has demonstrated considerable pandemic potential. Currently, no effective vaccines for H5N1 infection are available, so passive immunotherapy may be an alternative strategy. To investigate the possible therapeutic effect of antibody against highly pathogenic H5N1 virus on a mammal host, we prepared specific equine anti-H5N1 IgGs from horses vaccinated with inactivated H5N1 virus, and then obtained the F(ab')2 fragments by pepsin digestion of IgGs. Methods: The horses were vaccinated with inactivated H5N1 vaccine to prepare anti-H5N1 IgGs. The F(ab')2 fragments were p...
Gallo N, Natali ML, Sannino A, Salvatore L.Type I collagen has always aroused great interest in the field of life-science and bioengineering, thanks to its favorable structural properties and bioactivity. For this reason, in the last five decades it has been widely studied and employed as biomaterial for the manufacture of implantable medical devices. Commonly used sources of collagen are represented by bovine and swine but their applications are limited because of the zoonosis transmission risks, the immune response and the religious constrains. Thus, type-I collagen isolated from horse tendon has recently gained increasing interest a...
Balaggan KS, Binley K, Esapa M, MacLaren RE, Iqball S, Duran Y, Pearson RA, Kan O, Barker SE, Smith AJ, Bainbridge JW, Naylor S, Ali RR.We evaluated the efficacy of equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV)-based lentiviral vectors encoding endostatin (EIAV.endostatin) or angiostatin (EIAV.angiostatin) in inhibiting angiogenesis and vascular hyperpermeability in the laser-induced model of choroidal neovascularisation (CNV). Equine infectious anaemia virus.endostatin, EIAV.angiostatin or control (EIAV.null) vectors were administered into the subretinal space of C57Bl/6J mice. Two weeks after laser injury CNV areas and the degree of vascular hyperpermeability were measured by image analysis of in vivo fluorescein angiograms. Compar...
van der Kraan PM.Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disease but an effective pharmacological therapy has not been developed yet. To identify targets for treatment and ways to interfere with OA development and progression both spontaneous and induced OA models are still needed. In this narrative review it is discussed what variables can be identified that lead to variation in OAÂ animal model studies. Literature was screened (Pubmed) with the following terms; OA animal models in combination with species, age, strain, gender/sex, housing, diet, fighting, circadian rhythm, transgenic. Relevant articles ...
Nielsen MK, Vidyashankar AN, Andersen UV, Delisi K, Pilegaard K, Kaplan RM.Fecal analyses are becoming increasingly important for equine establishments as a means of parasite surveillance and detection of anthelmintic resistance. Although several studies have evaluated various egg counting techniques, little is known about the quantitative effects of pre-analytic factors such as collection and storage of fecal samples. This study evaluated the effects of storage temperature, storage time and airtight versus open-air storage on fecal egg counts. The experimental protocols were replicated in two study locations: Copenhagen, Denmark and Athens, Georgia, USA. In both loc...
Naskou MC, Sumner SM, Chocallo A, Kemelmakher H, Thoresen M, Copland I, Galipeau J, Peroni JF.Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) produced for clinical purposes rely on culture media containing fetal bovine serum (FBS) which is xenogeneic and has the potential to significantly alter the MSC phenotype, rendering these cells immunogenic. As a result of bovine-derived exogenous proteins expressed on the cell surface, MSCs may be recognized by the host immune system as non-self and be rejected. Platelet lysate (PL) may obviate some of these concerns and shows promising results in human medicine as a possible alternative to FBS. Our goal was to evaluate the use of equine platelet lysate (ePL) poo...
Marędziak M, Marycz K, Smieszek A, Lewandowski D, Toker NY.The aim of this study was to evaluate the proliferation rate and morphological changes of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells of canine and equine origin (Eq- and CaAdMSC). Investigated cells were exposed to a static magnetic field (MF) with the intensity of 0.5 T. Proliferation activity of cells was determined with the Alamar Blue assay. Obtained results, normalized in respect to the control culture, showed that EqAdMSC exposed to MF maintained a high proliferation status, whereas proliferation activity of CaAdMSC cultured in the presence of MF was decreased. Estimations of population doub...
Klymiuk MC, Balz N, Elashry MI, Heimann M, Wenisch S, Arnhold S.Mesenchymal stem cells are used for different therapeutic approaches, e.g. for osteoarthritis, lesions of the tendon as well as for bone defects. Current research on the mechanism of stem cells on the repair of damaged tissue suggest an important role of a cell-to-cell communication through secreted extracellular vesicles, mainly represented by exosomes. To enhance the scarce knowledge on the functional role of exosomes we compared as a first step different techniques to isolate and identify exosomes from the supernatant of equine adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells for further characteriza...
Myers LL, Shoop DS, Byars TD.Enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF) was isolated from the feces of 10 of 40 Thoroughbred foals with naturally acquired diarrhea. Of the 10 foals positive for ETBF, 6 were less than or equal to 7 days old. Fecal specimens from 4 of the 10 foals also were positive for rotavirus, and one fecal specimen was positive for Salmonella enteritidis. Clinical or hematologic differences were not evident between foals infected with ETBF only and those infected with ETBF and another recognized enteric pathogen. Only 1 of 10 foals infected with ETBF died. Of 25 adult rabbits with ligated ceca, 23 dev...
Schoster A, Mosing M, Jalali M, Staempfli HR, Weese JS.The intestinal microbiota is important for health and disease. Factors that disturb the equine intestinal microbiota need further investigation. Objective: To determine the effects of transport, fasting and anaesthesia on the faecal microbiota of healthy adult horses using next-generation sequencing. Methods: Experimental trial. Methods: Faecal samples were taken from 8 horses at baseline, after transport, 12Â h of fasting and 24, 48 and 72Â h after a 6Â h anaesthesia. Next generation sequencing of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was used to assess the microbial composition of faeces. Alpha...
Olstad K, Hendrickson EH, Carlson CS, Ekman S, Dolvik NI.To transect blood vessels within epiphyseal cartilage canals and observe whether this resulted in ischaemic chondronecrosis, an associated focal delay in enchondral ossification [osteochondrosis (OC)] and pathological cartilage fracture [osteochondrosis dissecans (OCD)] in the distal femur of foals, with potential translational value to the pathogenesis of juvenile osteochondritis dissecans (JOCD) in children. Methods: Ten Norwegian Fjord Pony foals were operated at the age of 13-15 days. Two vessels supplying the epiphyseal growth cartilage of the lateral trochlear ridge of the left distal fe...
Wang ZW, Nara M, Wang YX, Kotlikoff MI.The effects of sulfhydryl reduction/oxidation on the gating of large-conductance, Ca(2+)-activated K+ (maxi-K) channels were examined in excised patches from tracheal myocytes. Channel activity was modified by sulfhydryl redox agents applied to the cytosolic surface, but not the extracellular surface, of membrane patches. Sulfhydryl reducing agents dithiothreitol, beta-mercaptoethanol, and GSH augmented, whereas sulfhydryl oxidizing agents diamide, thimerosal, and 2,2'-dithiodipyridine inhibited, channel activity in a concentration-dependent manner. Channel stimulation by reduction and inhibit...
Hdud IM, Mobasheri A, Loughna PT.The metabolic activity of articular chondrocytes is influenced by osmotic alterations that occur in articular cartilage secondary to mechanical load. The mechanisms that sense and transduce mechanical signals from cell swelling and initiate volume regulation are poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the expression of two putative osmolyte channels [transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) and large-conductance Ca(2+)-activated K(+) (BKCa)] in chondrocytes is modulated in different osmotic conditions and to examine a potential role for MAPKs in this process...
Hammond SA, Li F, McKeon BM, Cook SJ, Issel CJ, Montelaro RC.Persistent infection of equids by equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) is typically characterized by a progression during the first year postinfection from chronic disease with recurring disease cycles to a long-term asymptomatic infection that is maintained indefinitely. The goal of the current study was to perform a comprehensive longitudinal analysis of the course of virus infection and development of host immunity in experimentally infected horses as they progressed from chronic disease to long-term inapparent carriage. We previously described the evolution of EIAV genomic quasispecies (C...
Ishihara A, Bertone AL, Rajala-Schultz PJ.To evaluate the association between subjective lameness grades and kinetic gait parameters and assess the variability in kinetic parameters in horses with experimentally induced forelimb lameness. Methods: 32 horses. Methods: Forelimb lameness was induced in each horse via injection of lipopolysaccharide into 1 metacarpophalangeal joint (40 experimental trials). Subjective lameness grading and 13 kinetic gait parameters (force plate analysis) were assessed before (baseline) and at 12, 18, and 24 hours after lipopolysaccharide injection. While horses were trotting, kinetic gait analysis was per...
Hoagwood KE, Acri M, Morrissey M, Peth-Pierce R.To systematically review experimental evidence about animal-assisted therapies (AAT) for children or adolescents with or at risk for mental health conditions, we reviewed all experimental AAT studies published between 2000-2015, and compared studies by animal type, intervention, and outcomes. Methods: Studies were included if used therapeutically for children and adolescents (≤21 years) with or at risk for a mental health problem; used random assignment or a waitlist comparison/control group; and included child-specific outcome data. Of 1,535 studies, 24 met inclusion criteria. Results: Of 2...
