Immunoglobulins in horses are antibodies produced by the immune system to identify and neutralize pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. These proteins are essential components of the horse's immune response and are involved in recognizing foreign antigens. The primary classes of immunoglobulins in horses include IgG, IgA, IgM, IgE, and IgD, each with distinct roles in immune function. IgG is the most abundant and plays a key role in systemic immune responses, while IgA is important for mucosal immunity. IgM is the first antibody produced in response to an antigen, and IgE is involved in allergic reactions. IgD's function is less well-defined but is thought to be involved in respiratory immune responses. This page aggregates peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the structure, function, and clinical relevance of immunoglobulins in equine health.
Nielsen KH.Using antisera specific for the heavy chain of human IgE and bovine reaginic immunoglobulin, the degree of cross-reaction amongst sera from pig, rat, rabbit, guinea pig, goat, cow, horse, dog, cat and human was tested. Antihuman IgE antiserum gave strong reactions with pig, rabbit, cow, goat and human sera (100% to 15.1%) and weak reactions with rat, guinea pig, horse, dog and cat sera (10.1% to 3.22%). Antibovine reagin antiserum produced a considerable amount of cross-reaction with sera from pig, rat, rabbit, goat, horse and human (43.6% to 20.1%) with limited reactions with guinea pig, dog ...
Mitchell KF, Karush F, Morgan DO.The heterogeneity of the IgM response has been studied with anti-lactose antibody purified from the sera of seven horses. The IgM antibody was induced with a bacterial vaccine and the sera were obtained during a one-year period of immunization. L and H chain preparations were derived from separate bleedings of each horse and examined by analytical isoelectric focusing. All of the L chain preparations were complex and similar and, under optimum conditions, exhibited about 45 bands. Their similarity included almost identical concentration distributions over the entire pH gradient. Isoelectric ba...
Gaskin JM, Neal FC, Rubin HL.Precipitin lines not associated with equine infectious anemia (EIA) were observed in routine agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) testing for the infection. The serums which produced these lines were obtained from horses which had been given multiple vaccinations with commercially available cell culture-origin equine virus vaccines as part of a comprehensive herd health program. The lines formed against cell culture-derived, but not spleen-derived EIA viral antigens. Investigation revealed that bovine serum proteins in the vaccines induced precipitating antibodies which reacted with bovine serum pr...
Perryman LE, McGuire TC, Hilbert BJ.Selective immunoglobulin M deficiency was diagnosed in 5 foals, on the basis of reduced serum immunoglobulin M concentrations (more than 2 standard deviations below the normal mean). All 5 foals had clinical signs or lesions involving the respiratory tract. Lkebsiella sp was isolated from joint fluids, bronchial lymph nodes, or tracheal washings from the 3 foals in which such samples were available for microbiologic evaluation.
Methods in enzymologyJanuary 1, 1977
Volume 46 516-523 doi: 10.1016/s0076-6879(77)46062-2
Gopalakrishnan PV, Zimmerman UJ, Karush F.Affinity labeling studies with anticarbohydrate antibodies have been very limited. In earlier studies, diazoniumphenyl glycosides were employed as affinity labeling reagents for rabbit and equine anti-p-azophenyl-β-lactoside and p-azophenyl- β-galactoside antibodies. Although these antibodies were heterogeneous, it was possible to identify the labeled residues in the heavy or light chains since the modified residues had characteristic absorption spectra. With the discovery of bacterial cell walls of Streptococcus groups A and C induced antipolysaccharide antibodies of restricted heterogeneit...
Poppie MJ, McGuire TC.Combined immunodeficiency (CID), a defect in both B- and T-lymphocytes, was found to occur in 2.3% of 257 foals of Arabian breeding. All affected foals died by 5 months of age. The belief that CID is transmitted as an autosomal recessive genetic defect was supported by results from matings of dams and sires that had previously produced affected foals. Based on a prevalence of 2.3%, the proportion of carriers of the CID trait among the adult population surveyed was estimated to be 25.7%. Recent descriptions of other immunologic defects in foals emphasized the need for careful differential diagn...
Carroll EJ, Lasmanis J, Schalm OW.A method is described for production of an equine anti-bovine leukocyte serum (EABLS). Leukocytes were harvested from the milk of cow's udders which had been irritated with endotoxin. The washed leukocytes as antigens were administered to 2 horses in a series of subcutaneous and intravenous injections. There was a variably progressive increase in total serum proteins and a decrease in albumin/blobulin ratios, but the most pronounced change was an increase in beta2-globulins. Accompanying these changes was an increase in the number of precipitin lines as shown by Ouchterlony analysis. Four old ...
Holowka DA, Cathou RE.IgM antibodies specific for the fluorophore epsiolon-1-dimethylamino-5-naphthalenesulfonyl-L-lysine(DNS-lysine) were elicited in the horse and nurse shark by immunization with a DNS-lysine streptococcal conjugate; the antibodies were purified by specific adsorption with an immunoadsorbent followed by gel filtration to select the IgM class (molecular weight 900 000). About 90% of the equine anti-DNS was IgM.DNS-Lysine, when bound in the combining sites of a population of these anti-DNS IgM antigodies from horse and nurse shark, as well as from pig, exhibited a marked fluorescence enhancement an...
Poppie MJ, McGuire TC.Foals with combined immunodeficiency (CID), a fatal genetic defect in the production of both B and T lymphocytes, are born without immunoglobulins and are unable to synthesise them. CID foals receiving immunoglobulins via the dam's colostrum may live up to four months of age. Those CID foals with failure of passive transfer (FPT) die at a much earlier age. The occurrence of CID is of value in studying passive transfer of immunoglobulins, as no confusion exists as to when passive transfer ends and active synthesis of immunoglobulins begins. A high correlation has been found between early foal d...
Barban PS, Minaeva VM, Pantiukhina AN, Startseva MG.A comparative study was made of the serological properties and virus-neutralizing activity of antiencephalitis gamma-globulin and Fab-fragments isolated from it by gel-filtration. Horse immunoglobulins against the autumno-summer tick-borne encephalitis virus could be disintegrated with the aid of papaine to monovalent Fab-fragments which (according to the complement fixation reaction, the test of suppression of the complement fixation, and the HAIT) retained the serological activity whose level was compared with that of the serological activity of gamma-globulin. Fab-fragments possessed a mark...
McGuire TC, Banks KL, Evans DR, Poppie MJ.Agammaglobulinemia was diagnosed in a 1-year-old Thoroughbred horse on the basis of the following observations: (1) absence of serum immunoglobulins M, A, and G(T); (2) small amounts of serum immunoglobulin G (16 mg/100 ml); (3) absence of specific antibody in the serum of the horse following immunization and challenge exposure to 2 antigens; (4) absence of plasma cells, primary follicles, and germinal centers in a lymph node removed after antigenic stimulation; (5) absence of "natural" serum antibodies to rabbit-erythrocytes which were easily detectable in age-matched control horse serums; an...
McGuire TC.Comparison of immunoglobulin levels of nine horses before and after infection with equine infectious anaemia (EIA) virus demonstrated a significant depression of serum IgG(T) at 2 months (P less than 0-001) and at 1 year (P less than 0-01) after infection. In contrast, the levels of IgGa were significantly increased at both times after infection. Another sixteen horses with EIA for 1-4 months were examined and there was also significant depression (P less than 0-001) of IgG(T) when compared to pre-infection levels. No significant changes in IgG(T), IgGa and IgM were noted in fourteen normal ho...
Jeffcott LB.The mechanism of transfer of maternal immunity to the foal is reviewed. Maximal efficiency of macromolecular absorption by specialized cells of the small intestine exists soon after birth. The absorptive cells are progressively replaced by more mature-looking cells incapable of taking up large molecules and the rate of absorption is reduced in a linear decline and ceases completely within 24 hr. Passive antibody levels fall rapidly in the first 4 weeks of life to less than half their original values and have usually completely disappeared by 6 months of age. The foal shows immunological compet...
Morgan DO, Bryans JT, Mock RE.The foal is born without detectable antibody and except for small amounts of IgM is devoid of immunoglobulins. Intrafetal administration of either Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus (VEE-TC83) or ovine erythrocytes elicited IgGa, IgGb and a trace of IgG(T). The fetal blood VEE-TC83 neutralization titre was higher than the neutralization titre elicited by the same preparation in older horses.
MacDougall DF.The proteins IgG and IgG(T) are the predominant immunoglobulins in equine colostrum. Their distribution and catabolism were studied in the newborn foal using an isotopic tracer technique. More precise quantitation of the absorption of these immunoglobulins from colostrum is now possible.
Rott R, Becht H, Orlich .Influenza virus Equine 1 (A/equine/Prague/56) has a hemagglutinin which is antigenically related to the hemagglutinin of fowl plague virus strain Rostock (FPV) and a neuraminidase which cross-reacts with the enzyme of virus N (A/chick/Germany/49). After a single injection of chickens with Equine 1 virus no hemagglutination inhibiting (HI) and neutralizing antibodies against FPV can be demonstrated, although the birds are fully protected against a lethal dose of FPV. HI and neutralizing antibodies against FPV appear after a second injection of Equine 1 virus several weeks after the first one. L...
Schmoldt A, Benthe HF, Haberland G, Tarentino AL, Maley F, Berkmen YM, Lande A, Fine JM, Lambin P, Derycke C, North ML, Chataing B, Goudemand M.The chest roentgenographic findings in Takayasu's arteritis include widening of the ascending aorta, contour irregularities of the descending aorta, arotic calcifications, pulmonary arterial changes, rib notching, and hilar lymphadenopathy. The single most important diagnostic sign is a segmental calcification outlining a localized or diffuse narrowing of the aorta. The other signs may be suspicious or suggestive, but the diagnostic accuracy increases when several findings are present simultaneously. A routine screening of monoclonal gammopathies (M.G.) was performed in the serum from 36, 015 ...
Grigor'eva IA, Sergeevich EA, Lyskovtsev MM, Oleneva AG, Pushkarev VV.Dry erythrocytic diagnostic agents were obtained under experimental conditions for determination of antiglobulins forming in the organism of man and animals under the effect of serum preparations from the blood of horses and homologoum immunoglobulins. A study was made of the sera of 100 patients with tick-borne encephalitis treated with heterologous and homologous immunoglobulins of directed action; in response to the administration of horse gamma-globulin antiglobulins (in titres below 1 : 10000) appeared in the serum; they circulated in the blood for long periods and inhibited the accumulat...
McGuire TC, Poppie MJ, Banks KL.Measurement of serum immunoglobulins in 46 foals less than 2 weeks old revealed 9 foals with hypogammaglobulinemia. The hypogammaglobulinemia was attributed to failure in transfer of immunoglobulins from dam to foal via colostrum. Three of the affected foals did not nurse at all, or only slightly, and 2 of these died of infections within a few days after birth, whereas the 3rd foal did not grow as well as normal foals. Six of the affected foals nursed in an apparently normal manner, and 5 of these had nonfatal respiratory infections between 2 and 5 weeks of age. Analysis of serum samples from ...
Allen PZ, Dalton EJ.Donkey IgGa was isolated in purified form from normal and immune donkey sera by column chromatography on DEAE-cellulose. Isolated donkey IgGa and mixtures of (IgGa+IgGb) were used as antigens to prepare rabbit reagents specific for equine IgGa or IgGb. Antibodies present in sera obtained from a single donkey at various times during the course of hyperimmunization with BSA were isolated by immuno-adsorption. The class or subclass of immunoglobulins present among isolated, donkey anti-BSA antibodies was determined by use of specific rabbit anti-equine immunoglobulin reagents. The homologues of h...
Chua MM, Morgan DO, Karush F.The immune response to a bacterial vaccine of Streptococcus faecalis (strain N) was characterized in all of the seven horses studied by the sustained production of about 90% IgM anti-lactose antibody over a period of 44 weeks with maximum values of the total antibody ranging from 4 mg/ml of serum to 12 mg/ml of serum. With respect to the binding of a lactose-containing ligand the association constants of the antibodies purified from sera obtained between 5 and 44 weeks fell in the range of 1 times 10-5 M-1 to 2 times 10-5 M-1. Not only was there no significant indication of maturation of a-fin...
Losinger WC, Traub-Dargatz JL, Sampath RK, Morley PS.Of 7320 equine foals reported born alive during 1997 on 1043 operations that had equids on 1 January 1997, and that participated in the United States National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) Equine 1998 Study, 120 foals were reported to have died (by either euthanasia or natural causes) within the first 2 days of a live birth. The weighted estimate was 1.7% mortality (standard error=0.5) within the first 2 days of live birth for all foals born on operations in the 28 states included in the study.A multivariable logistic-regression model revealed that foals born in the southern region w...
Czernomysy-Furowicz D, Silecka A, Nawrotek P, Jankowiak D, Karakulska J, Furowicz A.The research was conducted on clinically healthy mares (n = 40) and foals (n = 78) during Y. pseudotuberculosis associated enzootics. The animals were divided into groups: I to IV--mares, IA to IVA--their offsprings, IB to IVB--foals which mothers were not treated with any medicaments. The animals in group I, IA and IB were injected with PBS; in group II, IIA and IIB--with Y. pseudotuberculosis strain-based vaccine, in group III, IIIA and IIIB--with P. acnes strain-based immunostimulator; in group IV, IVA and IVB--with P. acnes strain-based immunostimulator and (5 days after the immunostimulat...
Lee HF, Lee JD, Lee YC.In course of immunizing horses with snake venoms, tetanus and diphtheria toxoids, a new serum component, T-globulin, was formed and migrated between the beta- and gamma-globulins. The T-globulin content was parallel with the antibody titre after the middle course of immunization. There were many components in snake antivenin and T-globulin was composed of most of those components. The components of diphtheria T-globulin were the same as those of crude antitoxin and tetanus T-globulin except one precipitin.
Liu IK.Uterine defense against infection in the mare has been actively investigated over the past decade. Mechanisms of defense, including the role of immunoglobulins, polymorphonuclear neutrophils, and the physical ability of mares to eliminate bacteria from the uterus, are discussed.
Helms CM, Allen PZ.Immunodiffusion analysis of papain digestion products, heavy and light chains of horse IgG-globulins with several rabbit and anti-horse IgG sera, have permitted the demonstration of five antigenic specificities (Fc1, Fc2, L, Lsp and Fabsp) associated with these equine antigens. Reactivity with anti-Fc1 is shown by both F′c and Fc fragments, while anti-Fc2 reactivity is shown only by Fc fragment.
Absorption of anti-Fab serum with L chain Fc fragment provides a reagent (anti-Fabsp) which precipitates only with Fab fragment, IgG-globulin or reduced and alkylated IgG. Upon exposure to deterge...
de Camargo MM, Kuribayashi JS, Bombardieri CR, Hoge A.Studies focusing on the equine humoral response are scarce, with a bias towards the pre- and post-parturition mare and its foal. The present study attempted to expand current knowledge by establishing normal ranges for adult horse serum isotypes. Immunoglobulin (Ig) concentrations were obtained by screening 47 horses of various breeds and in different training regimes. Radial immunodiffusion values (mg/dL) were 196+/-73 for IgA, 2704+/-1424 for IgG, 419+/-220 for IgG(T) and 70+/-30 for IgM. All values passed the Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test. The results will be of use to the field veterin...
Watson ED, Dixon CE.The distribution of T lymphocytes and of cells bearing MHC Class II antigens in the endometrium of the mare was studied using an avidin-biotin-peroxidase staining method. The cells within the endometrium which expressed MHC Class II were macrophages, lymphocytes, monocytes, dendritic cells, epithelial cells and endothelial cells. MHC Class II expression increased significantly (P < 0.05) in the luminal epithelium and tended (P = 0.0573) to increase in the subepithelial layers during oestrus. Numbers of T lymphocytes did not differ between oestrus and dioestrus. MHC Class II expression and T...
Karlström K, Essén-Gustavsson B.An assumed link between red cell hypervolaemia, an excessive amount of training and impaired performance of hypervolaemic horses has led to a theory that the muscle fibres could be affected. Myosin heavy chain (MHC)-based fibre type composition in gluteus medius muscle of red blood cell normo- (NV) and hypervolaemic (HV) Standardbred trotters was evaluated using immunohistochemistry. Muscle biopsies were obtained from 13 NV and 16 HV horses. Serial transverse sections were cut and reacted with antibodies against different isoforms of the myosin heavy chains MHCI, MHCIIA and MHCIIX. Sections we...