Lipids in horses are a diverse group of organic compounds that include fats, oils, waxes, and certain vitamins. These molecules are essential components of cell membranes and serve as a major energy source for equine metabolism. In horses, lipids are involved in various physiological processes, including energy storage, insulation, and the synthesis of hormones. The study of lipids encompasses their biochemical properties, metabolic pathways, and their impact on equine health and performance. Research in this area investigates the role of dietary lipids, the effects of lipid metabolism on equine diseases, and the implications of lipid profiles in athletic horses. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the biochemical roles, metabolic regulation, and health implications of lipids in horses.
Watson TD, Burns L, Packard CJ, Shepherd J.The incidence of hyperlipaemia in ponies is highest in mares in late gestation and then early in lactation. Plasma lipid and lipoprotein concentrations were measured to establish the metabolic basis for this and the lipoprotein composition of six healthy Shetland ponies was analysed before pregnancy, in the last six weeks of gestation and one month after foaling. In the pregnant ponies, the concentrations of cholesterol and triglyceride were significantly increased (both P < 0.05) because of increased concentrations of high density lipoproteins (HDL) and very low density lipoproteins (VLDL)...
Moser LR, Lawrence LM, Novakofski J, Powell DM.1. Clearance of infused lipid was observed in six mature resting horses, 2 to 6 hr after receiving a meal of alfalfa hay. 2. Intralipid, a 10% triglyceride emulsion, was infused at a rate of 0.2 ml/kg into the jugular vein. 3. Blood samples were obtained for 80 min post-infusion and assayed for plasma triglyceride concentration. 4. Clearance rate of the infused lipid was very slow (mean t1/2 = 269 min). 5. The clearance rate of the infused lipid in these horses was much slower than has been observed in other species. 6. The slow clearance of infused triglyceride in horses may suggest an inabil...
Pérez MD, Puyol P, Ena JM, Calvo M.The interaction of sheep, horse, pig, human and guinea-pig whey proteins with fatty acids has been studied. Using gel filtration and autoradiography, it was found that sheep beta-lactoglobulin and serum albumin from all species had the ability to bind fatty acids in vitro. Sheep beta-lactoglobulin, isolated from milk, had approximately 0.5 mol fatty acids bound per mol monomer protein, and albumin from sheep, horse and pig contained approximately 4.5, 2.9 and 4.7 mol fatty acids/mol protein respectively. However, beta-lactoglobulin from horse and pig milk had neither fatty acids physiologicall...
Watson TD, Burns L, Freeman DJ, Packard CJ, Shepherd J.1. Apolipoprotein A-I dependent lecithin:cholesterol acyl transferase (LCAT) activity was identified in equine lipoprotein deficient plasma (LPDP). 2. LCAT activity showed no breed or sex variation, and was unaltered postprandially. 3. There was no significant cholesteryl ester transfer activity in equine LPDP. 4. Hydrophobic interaction chromatography on phenyl sepharose failed to unmask transfer activity or identify an inhibitor of cholesteryl ester transfer. 5. In 12 Shetland ponies, plasma high density lipoprotein (HDL) concentrations were positively correlated with those of triglyceride, ...
White IG.When sperm of the ram, bull, boar and stallion are cold-shocked by rapid cooling to near freezing point, motility and metabolic activity are irreversibly depressed and the acrosome and plasma membrane disrupted. Ram sperm become susceptible to cold shock in the proximal corpus region of the epididymis when the cytoplasmic droplet has moved backwards to the distal portion of the sperm midpiece. The membrane constituents phospholipids and cholesterol are important in cold shock which causes loss of lipid from sperm. The susceptibility of sperm to cold shock is linked with a high ratio of unsatur...
Rojas G, Vargas M, Robles A, Gutiérrez JM.Twenty batches of polyvalent antivenom produced at the Instituto Clodomiro Picado were analyzed for turbidity, both before and after freezing-thawing and lyophilization. Eight batches became turbid upon freezing-thawing, and this change correlated with high levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and lipoproteins, especially beta-lipoprotein. Since normal horse serum does not become turbid after freezing-thawing, despite the fact that it has high lipoprotein levels, the possibility was raised that phenol, used as a preservative during serum fractionation, might affect lipoproteins, inducing the a...
Atwal OS, Singh B, Staempfli H, Minhas K.The pulmonary intravascular macrophages (PIMs) have been described in several species of animals. This study demonstrates for the first time that the equine lung has PIMs as resident phagocytes in its microvasculature. Their salient features such as globular surface coat, structures of the endocytic pathway, and related cell organelles closely resemble those of the calf, goat, and sheep. The exquisite organization of the coat globules in the form of a linear chain was structurally similar to the lipolytic lipase and the heparin-sensitive globular coat from PIMs of calf, goat, and sheep. Monast...
Le Goff D, Hannan J, Maboundou JC, Ayrault-Jarrier M.Equine plasma lipoproteins were fractionated into VLDL, LDL-1, LDL-2 and HDL by density gradient ultracentrifugation. From each lipoprotein fraction, five apo C like peptides of approx. M(r) 1400, 10000, 9500, 9000 and 8000 were detected by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. After partial purification by Sephadex G-75, one fraction, showing a strong activation of lipoprotein lipase, was further purified by Mono Q anion exchange column. Two of the apo C like peptides (M(r) 10000 and 8000) activated the bovine milk lipoprotein lipase in vitro; only one (M(r) 9500) inhibited the lipolytic ac...
Muesing RA, Miller VT, LaRosa JC, Stoy DB, Phillips EA.Administration of conjugated equine estrogen to 31 postmenopausal women for 3 months produced 14.6% and 9.4% decreases in low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and apolipoprotein-B (apoB), and 11.5%, 12.7%, and 9.6% increases in high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), apoA-I and apoA-II, respectively. Phospholipids of HDL2 and HDL3 were increased 57.9% and 19.3%, respectively, while relatively small increases in cholesterol of the two subfractions were not significant. Compositions of LDL and HDL and its subfractions were altered substantially with estrogen treatment. The proportio...
Watson TD, Burns L, Love S, Packard CJ, Shepherd J.The metabolic origins of equine hyperlipaemia were investigated by analysing the concentration and composition of plasma lipoproteins in 18 ponies with the condition. The mean concentrations of cholesterol, triglyceride and very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) were increased by 4-, 52- and 19-fold, respectively, compared with a control group of 18 healthy ponies. These increases were due to the appearance of a buoyant VLDL fraction (VLDL1) not present in healthy ponies. The mean diameter of VLDL1 particles was 44% greater than control VLDL, and the particles were enriched in triglyceride and f...
Watson TD, Burns L, Packard CJ, Shepherd J.Affinity chromatography on heparin sepharose was used to identify 2 lipolytic enzymes in heparinized plasma from horses. One enzyme was typical of hepatic triglyceride lipase (HTGL), because it was resistant to inactivation by high concentrations of NaCl, and it did not require the addition of serum for activity. The other enzyme was identified as lipoprotein lipase (LPL), because of its inactivation at NaCl concentrations in excess of 0.2M, and its dependency on addition of serum as a source of apolipoprotein C-II activator. The enzymes were purified by 347-(HTGL) and 442- (LPL) fold, with yi...
Parks JE, Lynch DV.Composition and thermotropic phase behavior of sperm membrane lipids from species ranging in sensitivity to cold shock were determined. Lipids from whole sperm and sperm plasma membrane were fractionated into neutral lipid, glycolipid, and phospholipid fractions. Compositional analyses were completed for free sterols, phospholipids and phospholipid-bound fatty acids. Phase transition temperatures were determined for phospholipid and glycolipid fractions using differential scanning calorimetry. Cholesterol was the major sterol in sperm lipids of all species. Cholesterol to phospholipid molar ra...
Matsuki N, Tamura S, Ono K, Watari T, Goitsuka R, Yamanobe A, Hiraga A, Kubo K, Takagi S, Hasegawa A.To understand the pathogenesis of equine exercise-induced myopathies and hemolysis, changes of phospholipid peroxidation products in the equine middle gluteal muscle and erythrocytes following the high-speed treadmill exercise were studied. In the skeletal muscle, the peroxidized phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) were increased at 24 hours after the exercise. The malondialdehydes (MDAs) were also increased as the protein-bound MDAs following exercise. In the erythrocytes, the peroxidized PE were significantly decreased at 24 hours after the exercise. The protein-bound MDAs were significantly incre...
Watson TD, Burns L, Love S, Packard CJ, Shepherd J.Plasma lipoproteins were isolated from eight Thoroughbred horses and eight Shetland ponies on the basis of particle size by gel filtration chromatography and according to density using rate-zonal ultracentrifugation. Three major classes corresponding to very low density lipoproteins (VLDL), low density lipoproteins (LDL) and high density lipoproteins (HDL) were identified and characterised by their lipid and apolipoprotein compositions. The particle size distributions of each class were determined by electron microscopy and non-denaturing polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis. HDL was fo...
Stammers JP, Hull D, Leadon DP, Jeffcott LB, Rossdale PD.The concentrations and fatty acid composition of the plasma free fatty acid, triacylglycerol and phospholipid fractions were determined in maternal and umbilical cord vein blood samples taken at delivery from 17 mares. Maternal and umbilical vein plasma free fatty acid concentrations were of a similar order and a positive correlation was found between the two levels suggesting that the equine placenta is permeable to fatty acid. Substantial amounts of the essential fatty acids and their longer chain derivatives were seen in both umbilical vein plasma free fatty acid and phospholipid fractions ...
Miller VT, Muesing RA, LaRosa JC, Stoy DB, Phillips EA, Stillman RJ.The effects of conjugated equine estrogen and subsequent cyclical progestogen supplementation on lipoprotein and apolipoprotein A-I levels were investigated in three groups of postmenopausal women. Unopposed conjugated equine estrogen (0.625 mg) lowered total cholesterol 4-8% and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol 12-19% below pre-treatment levels in all three groups. Levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and apolipoprotein A-I were increased 9-13 and 9-18%, respectively, with unopposed estrogen. The increase in HDL cholesterol was mainly due to increases in the high-dens...
Pereira A, Braekman JC, Dumont JE, Boeynaems JM.The incorporation of iodide into proteins (PBI) and lipids (LBI) of horse thyroid slices was measured in various conditions. Their dependency on the concentration of extracellular iodide was strikingly different. For PBI the relationship was biphasic with a decrease above 10 microM, likely to correspond to the Wolff-Chaikoff effect. On the contrary, LBI increased as a function of iodide concentration up to 100 microM. Methimazole (MMI) inhibited the incorporation of iodide into both LBI and PBI, but higher concentrations of MMI were required to depress LBI as compared to PBI. The inhibition of...
Bauer JE, Meyer DJ, Campbell M, McMurphy R.Alterations in serum lipid and lipoprotein concentrations in ponies with experimentally induced liver disease were investigated. Hepatocellular damage was induced, using a nonlethal dose of carbon tetrachloride. In a separate group of ponies, obstructive jaundice was induced by surgical ligation of the common bile duct. Over a 6-day period, blood samples were obtained from ponies after treatment with carbon tetrachloride and for 12 days in ponies subjected to surgery. Serum cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations were unaffected in both groups of ponies, except for significantly (P less th...
Floris B, Bini PP, Nuvole P, Di Meglio FG.The changes of some parameters in the blood serum of six Giara horses (3 males and 3 females) were checked weekly, in relation to the environmental temperature throughout a one winter and summer. T3, total lipids, triglycerides, urea nitrogen, creatinine, total protein, albumin, beta and gamma globulin showed significant difference between winter and summer and, with the exception of triglycerides, urea nitrogen and total protein were correlated to the environmental temperature. T4, glucose, uric acid and alpha globulin showed no difference between the two seasons and no correlation with the t...
Ono K, Inui K, Hasegawa T, Matsuki N, Watanabe H, Takagi S, Hasegawa A, Tomoda I.The change in activities of 3 major antioxidative enzymes in equine erythrocytes, superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSHpx), and catalase, was investigated in order to evaluate the effect of exercise. Blood samples were obtained from 11 thoroughbred horses before and immediately after vigorous exercise which induced the increase of plasma lipid peroxide (Lpx) concentration from 1.16 +/- 0.40 nmol/ml to 1.29 +/- 0.34 nmol/ml. Following the exercise, the GSHpx activity in erythrocytes was significantly reduced from 69 +/- 10 IU/gHb to 65 +/- 8 IU/gHb, whereas SOD and catalase ac...
Engen RL, Clark CL.High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to determine the phospholipid (PL) composition of ovine, equine, bovine, porcine, and canine RBC membranes. Procedural modifications of established techniques provided for separation of 7 PL within a 15- to 20-minute sample run. Significant (P less than 0.05) differences were detected in RBC membrane PL composition among the various species. The concern for physiologic properties associated with hemolysis and/or sedimentation rate must include evaluation of differences in the PL bilayer structure.
Milne EM, Doxey DL, Gilmour JS.Serum total lipids, lipoprotein fractions, triglycerides, cholesterol, phospholipids and free fatty acids were measured in horses with acute, subacute and chronic grass sickness (equine dysautonomia) and in colic cases. The values were compared with those of normal grazing and stabled horses. A marked individual variation occurred, but total lipids, triglycerides and free fatty acids were significantly higher than normal in grass sickness and colic cases with cholesterol was significantly higher than normal in grass sickness cases only. Pre-beta lipoprotein was significantly increased in colic...
Pösö AR, Viljanen-Tarifa E, Soveri T, Oksanen HE.Effects of graded intensity exercise on plasma lipids was studied in Standardbred and Finnishbred Trotters. The rate of lipolysis indicated by the elevated plasma concentrations of glycerol increased parallel with the intensity of the trot in the Standardbreds, but not as clearly in the Finnishbred trotters. During the exercise plasma triglyceride concentration increased significantly and the increase correlated with the intensity of the exercise as well as the activity of lipolysis. Together with the increase in plasma triglycerides, there was a parallel increase in the pre-beta fraction of l...
Craig AM, Blythe LL, Lassen ED, Rowe KE, Barrington R, Slizeski M.Fluctuations of serum vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol), cholesterol, and total lipids were monitored in 12 horses at 3-hour intervals for 72 hours. Mean coefficients of variation were 12, 5, and 15%, respectively. Statistical analyses were used to conclude that instrumentation error was accountable for only a small portion of the vitamin E variation. Results indicated that a single serum sample assay is an unsatisfactory indicator of vitamin E status in horses. These data have clinical application in the evaluation of horses suspected to be affected with equine degenerative myeloencephalopathy. Th...
Engelking LR, Anwer MS, Hofmann AF.The role of bile salt in biliary lipid excretion was studied in 3 healthy ponies with chronic external biliary fistulas. After endogenous bile salt pool depletion, micelle-forming taurocholate or taurochenodeoxycholate was infused to replace excreted bile salt. Enterohepatic circulations were held open (total biliary diversion) throughout each study. Results indicated that biliary lipid excretion in ponies (113 +/- 21 nmol/min/kg of body weight) is approximately 10 times less than that reported in rodents. Although the lipid composition (4.4% cholesterol, 5.6% phospholipid, and 90% bile salt) ...
van Dijk S, Wensing T.1. The serum lipoprotein pattern was studied in four horses, four ponies and in three high producing lactating and three non-lactating cows. The lipoprotein pattern was estimated with a combination of the preparative ultracentrifugation and the heparin-manganese precipitation technique. 2. The lipid composition of the lipoproteins of horse, pony, lactating cow and non-lactating cow was determined. 3. In all three species more than 50% of serum total lipids was found in the HDL fraction. 4. The mean chylomicron fraction in horse and pony was 3.1%. In the cow it varied from 1.5 to 2.5%. 5. Betwe...
Le Goff D, Pastier D, Hannan Y, Petit E, Ayrault-Jarrier M, Nouvelot A.1. Equine lipoproteins were isolated from plasma by density gradient ultracentrifugation and apolipoprotein composition determined by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. 2. VLDL and IDL were present at low concentration (0.2 mg/ml). Two apoB components of Mr corresponding to human apoB-100 and one apoB-48-like component were represented in VLDL fraction. 3. LDL-1 and LDL-2 subfractions have displayed an almost equal concentration (0.4 mg/ml). Two apoB-100-like components were the major apolipoproteins in each fraction. Small amounts of apoB-48-like component were detectable in LDL-1 and LD...
van der Kolk JH, Wensing T.The urinary corticoid:creatinine (c:c) ratio was determined in ten pony mares suffering from hyperlipoproteinaemia. The mean (+/- sd) urinary c:c ratio of these ten ponies (47 +/- 31 x 10(-6)) was not significantly different from that of twelve pony mares with a pituitary pars intermedia adenoma (31 +/- 18 x 10(-6). The correlation between the urinary concentration of corticoids and plasma total lipids, and the correlation between the urinary c:c ratio and plasma total lipids in ponies with hyperlipoproteinaemia were not significant (P > 0.05; r = 0.53 and r = 0.008, respectively). Preliminary...
Silva DM, Holden SA, Lyons A, Souza JC, Fair S.The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of the addition of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on the in vitro quality of cooled and frozen-thawed stallion semen. In Experiment 1, semen from 10 stallions was collected (three ejaculates per stallion). Semen was diluted to 100×106 spermatozoa mL-1 with 0.02mM vitamin E (VE) and 0, 1, 10 or 20ng mL-1 DHA and frozen. Semen was thawed and total motility (TM), rapid progressive motility (PM), acrosome integrity, membrane fluidity and morphology were assessed. In Experiment 2, semen from three stallions was collected (three ejaculates per stall...
Hernández-Avilés C, Ramírez-Agámez L, Love CC, Friedrich M, Pearson M, Kelley DE, Beckham AMN, Teague SR, LaCaze KA, Brinsko SP, Varner DD.Under in vitro conditions, stallion sperm might preferentially use energy substrates that primarily undergo mitochondrial metabolism. The present study sought to determine the effects of glucose, pyruvate, lactate, or their combinations on the quality of stallion sperm subjected to cooled storage at different temperatures, when using a skim milk-based semen extender. In Experiment 1, no substrate (Control), glucose (40 mM; Glu-40), pyruvate (2 mM, 19.8 mM; Pyr-2, Pyr-19), lactate (2 mM, 19.8 mM; Lac-2, Lac-19, respectively), or their combinations (G/P/L-2 or G/P/L-19, respectively) were ...
Barr B.Diarrhoea is a common problem in the neonatal and suckling foal. In certain circumstances supplemental nutrition is necessary depending on the age of foal, severity of diarrhoea and presence of other systemic manifestations. Nutritional supplementation can be provided either enterally or parenterally. Enteral nutrition is superior to parenteral nutrition because it is the most natural and physiologically sound means to provide nutritional support. Parenteral nutrition may be warranted if the foal is unable to receive or tolerate enteral nutrition. Dextrose alone or with amino acids and lipids ...
Reilly JD, Hopegood L, Gould L, Devismes L.The lipid chemistry of the normal equine hoof, together with the effect of oral supplementation with an evening primrose oil mixture (EPOM) on its growth, growth rate and lipid content was assessed in a controlled and blinded feeding trial at the Defence Animal Centre. Twelve horses were paired as closely as possible according to sex, age, weight, height and colour and then one from each pair was randomly allocated to treatment or control groups. The treatment group received 30 ml of oral EPOM/day, otherwise the nutrition and management regimes were the same for all horses. No significant diff...
Noble P, Lumay G, Coninx M, Collin B, Magnée A, Lecomte-Beckers J, Denoix JM, Serteyn D.An equine fetlock joint pendulum test was studied and the influence of post mortem time and intra-articular lipid solvent on the viscous frictional response examined. Fresh equine digits (group 1, n=6 controls; group 2, n=6 lipid solvent) were mounted on a pendulum tribometer. Assuming that pendular joint damping could be modelled by a harmonic oscillator fluid damping (HOFD), damping time (τ), viscous damping coefficient (c) and friction coefficient (μ) were monitored for 5h under experimental conditions (400N; 20°C). In all experiments, pendular joint damping was found to follow an expone...
Wouters CP, Toquet MP, Renaud B, François AC, Fortier-Guillaume J, Marcillaud-Pitel C, Boemer F, De Tullio P, Richard EA, Votion DM.Atypical myopathy (AM) is a severe rhabdomyolysis syndrome that occurs in grazing horses. Despite the presence of toxins in their blood, all horses from the same pasture are not prone to display clinical signs of AM. The objective of this study was to compare the blood metabolomic profiles of horses with AM clinical signs with those of healthy co-grazing (Co-G) horses. To do so, plasma samples from 5 AM horses and 11 Co-G horses were investigated using untargeted metabolomics. Metabolomic data were evaluated using unsupervised, supervised, and pathway analyses. Unsupervised principal component...
Siciliano PD, Wood CH.Fourteen 2-yr-old Quarter Horses and Quarter Horse x Thoroughbreds were randomly assigned to either a control (CTRL) diet or a diet supplemented with 6.4% soybean oil (SBO). The amounts of both diets that were fed met current NRC nutrient requirements and were isoenergetic with similar nutrient:energy ratios. Venous blood samples (20 mL) were taken at d 0, 30, 60, and 90 of the experiment and analyzed for serum alpha-tocopherol, serum cholesterol, and serum triglyceride. The sum of serum cholesterol and serum triglyceride values was used as an estimate of serum total lipid. The ratio of serum ...
Mikami T, Tsuchihashi K, Kashiwagi M, Yachida Y, Daino T, Hashi K, Akino T, Gasa S.A sulfatide, O-fatty-acylated 3-sulfogalactosylceramide at C6-O on galactoside, was isolated from equine brain and the chemical structure was characterized by proton NMR and MS. The O-acylation site of the acylated sulfatide was determined by the down-field shift of protons attached to a carbon having an O-acyl group in the NMR spectrum and by analysis of a partially methylated derivative before and after acetalization of the intact sulfatide using GC-MS. The O-acyl chain length was determined by GLC, revealing that it exclusively had palmitoyl and stearoyl residues as the major fatty acids. T...
Deldar A, Fregin FG, Bloom JC, Davanipour Z.The effects of strenuous exercise on serum electrolytes, blood metabolites, and serum enzymes were studied in a group of 13 horses participating in a 50-mile endurance ride. Blood samples were collected before, during, and at the end of the ride, as well as 1 hour and 16 hours after the completion of the ride. There were significant changes in these values when preride values were compared with those of samples taken at different sample-collection periods. Significant (P less than 0.001) decreases were observed in serum concentrations of chloride, potassium, and calcium. A significant increase...
Mordovskaia VI, Krivoshapkin VG, Pogozheva AV, Baĭkov VG.The gas chromatography method the fat acid content of the young Yakut horse meat fat tissue lipids was studied in relation to the age group, various parts of the body and anatomic topographic location of the fat/It was determined that the of sixth-month young horse is the source of the PUFA omega-3 that allows to recommend horse meat as a dietary product for atherosclerosis prevention. By medial chain fat content the lipids of the 6 month young horses are close to the lipids of milk fat.
Milne EM, Doxey DL, Gilmour JS.Serum total lipids, lipoprotein fractions, triglycerides, cholesterol, phospholipids and free fatty acids were measured in horses with acute, subacute and chronic grass sickness (equine dysautonomia) and in colic cases. The values were compared with those of normal grazing and stabled horses. A marked individual variation occurred, but total lipids, triglycerides and free fatty acids were significantly higher than normal in grass sickness and colic cases with cholesterol was significantly higher than normal in grass sickness cases only. Pre-beta lipoprotein was significantly increased in colic...
Breidenbach A, Fuhrmann H, Busche R, Sallmann HP.A simple and sensitive method for direct and continuous monitoring of free fatty acid (FFA) release, by measuring the pH-sensitive change in relative fluorescence intensity of seminaphthofluorescein (SNAFL-1) is described. The method was designed to use a small number of adipocytes isolated from fat pads of rats and biopsy specimens of horses for the detection of decreasing pH in fat cell suspensions caused by released FFA into the incubation medium. Species specific differences of lipolysis were demonstrated when adipocytes of rats and horses are incubated with stimulators or inhibitors of li...
Auyyuenyong R, Henze A, Ungru J, Schweigert FJ, Raila J, Vervuert I.Obesity is a key component of equine metabolic syndrome, which is highly associated with laminitis. Feed restriction and/or exercise are known to alleviate the detrimental effects of insulin resistance in obese ponies. However, little is known about changes in the serum lipid patterns due to weight reduction and its association with disease outcomes. Therefore, the lipid patterns in the serum of 14 mature ponies before and after a 14-week body weight reduction program (BWRP) were investigated by multi-one-dimensional thin-layer chromatography (MOD-TLC). Additionally, sensitivity to insulin (SI...
Hallamaa RE, Batchu KC, Tallberg T.Equine summer eczema, also known as insect bite hypersensitivity, affects horses recurrently during summer months. The treatment of this allergic pruritus is difficult and therefore there is a need for efficacious treatments. Autoserum therapy, based on the use of autogenous serum that is specifically prepared for oral administration and given when the animal shows clinical signs has been introduced recently. Lipids are thought to be responsible for the effect of this therapy. Objective: The main aim of this study was to analyse the phospholipid content of autogenous serum preparations and to ...
Engelking LR, Anwer MS, Hofmann AF.The role of bile salt in biliary lipid excretion was studied in 3 healthy ponies with chronic external biliary fistulas. After endogenous bile salt pool depletion, micelle-forming taurocholate or taurochenodeoxycholate was infused to replace excreted bile salt. Enterohepatic circulations were held open (total biliary diversion) throughout each study. Results indicated that biliary lipid excretion in ponies (113 +/- 21 nmol/min/kg of body weight) is approximately 10 times less than that reported in rodents. Although the lipid composition (4.4% cholesterol, 5.6% phospholipid, and 90% bile salt) ...
Palomba E, Martone F, Meduri A, Vaccaro A, Damiani N.A description is given of an outbreak of equine infectious anaemia (E.I.A.) in Campania [at Naples and Aversa (Caserta)]; it was diagnosed by clinical, pathological and serological examinations (Coggins test). Using the serum of 45 horses with E.I.A. and 11 healthy horses (controls), numerous investigations were carried out on: enzymes, intrinsic coagulation factors, lipids and other substances. The results obtained were very interesting and show that in this disease there are significant increases in many enzymes (LDH, LAP, gamma-GT, CPK, PK and ALD) and copper. Insignificant increases were f...
Novello G, Segabinazzi LGTM, Lisboa FP, Canuto LE, Freitas-Dell'Aqua CP, Dell'Aqua JA, Canisso IF.This study compared the postthaw semen parameters of stallions with high and low body condition score (BCS) and evaluated associations between body morphometric parameters and postthaw semen parameters. Twenty stallions were split into Low BCS (BCS<7, n = 11) and High BCS (BCS ≥7, n = 9) groups, and underwent a complete morphometric analysis (e.g., neck scores and circumference, crest neck height, body weight, and height), and subcutaneous body fat thickness (SFT) at the tail head, withers, shoulders, and retroperitoneal space. A fasted oral sugar test (OST) was conducted on all stallio...
Carrington EF, Desautels M, Naylor JM.Catecholamines are important lipolytic agents in horses and ponies but the nature of the adrenergic receptor subtype distribution in their adipocytes is uncertain. A first objective was to identify the beta-adrenergic receptor subtype(s) present in adipocytes from horses and ponies. A second objective was to evaluate if the lipolytic responsiveness of isolated adipocytes to beta-adrenergic agonists is altered during lactation, a condition known to affect markedly maternal fat metabolism. Isoproterenol and salbutamol elicited strong lipolytic responses in adipocytes isolated from horse and pony...
Hallebeek JM, Beynen AC.In a cross-over study with six adult horses, the effect of isoenergetic replacement of dietary glucose by beetpulp on the concentration of plasma triacylglycerols was studied. The test ration contained 25% beetpulp in the dietary dry matter. The feeding of beet pulp lowered plasma triacylglycerol concentrations (p = 0.058) in the fasting state and raised the activity of heparin-released lipoprotein lipase (LPL) (p = 0.059) and the concentration of HDL2 cholesterol (p = 0.058). In the fasting state, the plasma concentrations of free fatty acids (p = 0.073) and those of beta-hydroxybutyrate (p =...
Colton SW, Downing DT.To observe the time-course of formation of sebaceous lipids in the horse, skin was pulse-labelled in vivo by intradermal injection of [1-14C]acetate and the injection sites were harvested at intervals for up to 12 days by skin punch biopsy. The distribution of radioactivity among the major neutral lipid classes and the phospholipids from these biopsies showed that, soon after pulse-labelling, the phospholipids were highly labelled followed by a long-term decrease in radioactivity. Over the same period, the low initial labelling of the dominant component, the equolides (giant ring omega-lactone...
Stammers JP, Hull D, Silver M, Fowden AL, Ousey J, Rossdale PD.An in vitro incubation technique was used to examine release of lipids from the equine placenta. Placental tissue was obtained at term (n = 5, term = 320-365 days) and earlier in gestation (n = 8, mean = 266 days). Term placentae were incubated at two temperatures, 4 degrees C (control) and 37 degrees C for 2 h. Pre-term placentae were incubated at 37 degrees C with two different concentrations of fatty acid in the medium. Tissues and media were analysed for their lipid concentrations. Term and pre-term placentae released free fatty acid (FFA) and phospholipid into the incubation medium during...
Suárez-Bonnet A, Espinosa de los Monteros A, Herráez P, Rodríguez F, Andrada M, Caballero MJ.A 4-year-old female Appaloosa horse was referred to the Department of Comparative Pathology, Veterinary Faculty, with a history of colic and acute respiratory distress. At necropsy, gross lesions consisted of extensive firm, multinodular, hemorrhagic foci in fat tissues with yellow-brown discoloration. The most affected areas were peritoneal fat and perirenal, epicardial, and subcutaneous adipose tissues. Other findings were hepatic lipidosis and multiple 1-1.5 cm hemorrhagic foci scattered in both lungs. Histopathological examination revealed severe degeneration and necrosis of adipose tissue...
Dühlmeier R, Gück T, Deegen E, Busche R, Sallmann HP.To investigate the influence of overweight and dietary fat supplementation on lipid and insulin glucose metabolism of Shetland ponies, eight Shetland pony geldings were fed a hypercaloric (30 MJ DE/150 kg bwt. and day) fat diet (10% fat as soybean oil) or a carbohydrate control diet for nine months until ponies gained an overweight of 15%. Afterwards oral glucose tolerance tests (oGTT; 5, 6 mmol/kg bwt.) were performed after a 12 hour fast and after a fast which led to an increase of plasma triglyceride concentrations to a threshold of 3 mmol/l (36-65 hrs.). Plasma concentrations of glucose, i...
Dunnett CE, Marlin DJ, Harris RC.The aim of the present study was to relate changes in muscle oxidative capacity and free fatty acid flux in response to oil supplementation to fuel utilisation during subsequent exercise of varying intensities. Following 10 weeks of oil supplementation there was an increased capacity for fat utilisation during low and moderate intensity exercise as indicated by a lower respiratory exchange ratio (RER) (P<0.05). We suggest that this was contributed to by a parallel increase in the oxidative capacity of muscle as indicated by a significant increase in the activity of muscle citrate synthase (...
Kaur N, Townsend H, Lohmann K, Marques F, Singh B.Rhodococcus equi establishes long-term pulmonary infection, survives in phagolysosomes of alveolar macrophages and causes pneumonia in foals. The failure of the foal to clear R. equi bacteria is believed to be due to its inability to produce IFN-γ and defects in Toll-like receptor(TLR) signaling. Lipid rafts sequester immune receptors such as TLRs and facilitate efficient cell signaling and therefore, a deficiency in accumulation of receptors in lipid rafts may result in failure to activate. We tested whether a Virulence Associated Protein A (VapA)/CpG vaccine against R. equi would impact the...
Wensing T, van Gent DM, Schotman AJ, Kroneman J.(I) The lipid and lipoprotein concentrations in sera of 4 healthy and 9 hyperlipaemic patients were determined. From the results of the analyses, it is suggested that three types of hyperlipoproteinaemia can be distinguished in ponies: (a) Type 1, characterised by a very pronounced increase in only the very low density lipoproteins (VLDL); (b) Type 2, in which there is a pronounced increase in the chylomicrons (Chylo) and the very low density lipoproteins (VLDL); (c) Type 3, which can be the result of fasting and is characterised by a moderate increase in the concentration of chylomicrons and ...
Bohar Topolovec M, Kruljc P, Prošek M, Jazbec Križman P, Smidovnik A, Nemec Svete A.Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is an essential cofactor in the mitochondrial electron transport pathway, and is also the only known endogenously synthesized lipid-soluble antioxidant. The aim of the present study was to determine, for the first time, endogenous plasma CoQ10 concentration and its correlation with plasma total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and serum total cholesterol (TC) in a population of healthy untrained horses. Thirty-one horses were included in the study. Plasma CoQ10 concentration ranged from 0.380 to 2.090 mg/L, which is in general agreement with plasma CoQ10 concentration in humans....
Sklan D, Donoghue S.1. Serum and intracellular distribution of retinol was determined in equines maintained on four levels of vitamin A intake. 2. The form of retinol transported in serum was determined by gel filtration and chromatography to be a complex of retinol bound to a protein of molecular weight (MW) of approximately 20000, which was in turn complexed probably with prealbumin to yield a complex with a MW of 75000 to 80000. 3. Increasing dietary vitamin A levels enhanced the concentration of lipoprotein-bound retinyl esters in the plasma. 4. Vitamin A in the liver cytosol was found predominantly as retiny...
Casanova E, Knowles TDJ, Outram AK, Stear NA, Roffet-Salque M, Zaibert V, Logvin A, Shevnina I, Evershed RP.Direct and accurate radiocarbon dating of lipid residues preserved in ceramics is a recently established method that allows direct dating of specific food products and their inception in human subsistence strategies. The method targets individual fatty acids originating from animal fats such as ruminant dairy, ruminant adipose, non-ruminant adipose and aquatic fats. Horse lipid residues found in Central Asian pottery vessels are also directly dateable using this new method. Here we present the identification of equine lipid residues preserved in two pottery assemblages from the Neolithic and E...
