Effects of diet and feeding on postprandial serum gastrin and insulin concentration in adult horses.

The research focuses on how different diets and feeding patterns affect the production of gastrin and insulin in adult horses. Gastrin is a hormone that stimulates the secretion of hydrochloric acid, while insulin is crucial for glucose metabolism.

Objective and Methodology

• The study primarily aims to understand how different diets influence gastrin levels in horses, with insulin levels serving as a supporting measure due to its established secretion patterns.
• It employs the technique of radioimmunoassay, a scientific method used to measure the concentration of specific substances typically hormones in a sample.
• Six horses were subjected to different diets including coastal bermuda hay, a complete pelleted ration, a commercial sweet feed, or the sweet feed combined with hay.

Key Findings

• The results demonstrated that diets containing more readily available nutrients such as pellets or sweet feed led to significant increases in post-meal gastrin and insulin levels. But feeding the horses hay alone didn’t lead to any considerable change in these hormone levels.
• Gastrin levels also varied depending on how long a specific diet was fed. This variance, however, was not observed in insulin levels.

Significance & Implications

• Given gastrin’s function, the research suggests that gastric acid secretion in horses can be significantly influenced by the type of diet and how long the diet is fed.
• The stomach’s gastrin secretion demonstrates a certain level of adaptability to changes in diet. But no such indication of adaptability was found in endocrine pancreas’s insulin secretion. This suggests that dietary changes may have different impacts on different hormonal systems within the horse’s body.

These findings may provide valuable insights on the optimized feeding regimen and diet composition for horses, potentially leading to improved health and performance. Further research can delve into the responsiveness and adaptability of different hormonal systems to dietary shifts.