Effect of intensive exercise on plasmatic neutrophil elastase level in eventing and endurance horses.

Intensive exercise drastically increases the levels of neutrophil elastase in the blood of endurance and eventing horses, leading to a systemic inflammatory response.

Introduction

• The research article investigates the impacts of exhaustive exercise on endurance and eventing horses, with a particular focus on levels of neutrophil elastase (NE), a protease that can cause tissue damage through its proteinase activities.
• This research aimed to draw comparisons between plasma NE concentrations before and after different forms of intensive exercise.

Methods

• The study collected blood samples from 51 eventing horses (EvH) and 32 endurance horses (EndH) before a race (T0).
• Follow-up blood samples were taken two hours after the competition (T1).
• The study evaluated changes in NE and myeloperoxidase (MPO) levels, as well as neutrophil counts and creatine kinase (CK) levels using a specific equine ELISA. A Wilcoxon test for paired samples compared the mean values at T0 and T1.

Results

• Before the competition, mean NE levels were 14.43 ± 3.63 ng/ml for EvH and 11.7 ± 2.11 ng/ml for EndH.
• The competition significantly increased NE levels to 58.57 ± 24.06 ng/ml in EvH and 95.74 ± 22.70 ng/ml in EndH.
• A strong positive correlation was found between the levels of NE and MPO in both types of horses. In EndH, a significant correlation was also found between NE and CK levels.
• An overall significant increase was noted in neutrophils, CK, and MPO levels in both types of horses from T0 to T1.

Conclusion

• Intense exercise resulted in a significant rise in NE levels, especially in EndH.
• There was a noteworthy correlation between NE and MPO indicating a systemic inflammatory response to exercise.
• The marked difference in MPO and NE levels among the horses implies that not all horses show the same intensity of inflammatory response after exercise.