Effects of vascular elastosis on uterine blood flow and perfusion in anesthetized mares.

This research investigates how a vascular degenerative condition, known as vascular elastosis, affects blood flow and perfusion in the uterus of mares, and its potential implications on fertility issues. The study contrasts blood flow in healthy mares with that of subfertile or infertile mares exhibiting elastosis, revealing a significant decrease in uterine perfusion in affected individuals during different stages of the estrous cycle.

Objective and Methodology

• The study aims to understand the impact of vascular elastosis on uterine blood flow (UBF) and its potential link to problems of subfertility or infertility in mares.
• For the purpose of the research, twenty mares were enlisted and divided according to the degree of vascular degeneration and their estrous cycle stage.
• The study employed a fluorescent microsphere technique to measure organ perfusion. This involved injecting the microspheres into the heart’s left ventricle, which then became trapped in capillaries in proportion to the blood flow and tissue perfusion.
• The reproductive tract was surgically removed, sectioned, and its fluorescent intensity evaluated to measure blood flow and perfusion. Furthermore, full-thickness samples of the uterine wall were inspected postmortem to ascertain the degree of vascular degeneration in the uterine wall layers.

Findings

• It was observed that the mean value of uterine perfusion (the volume of blood that passes through a given amount of tissue in a given time) for healthy mares was significantly higher during estrus than during diestrus.
• Contrary to this, for subfertile/infertile mares, there was no significant difference in tissue perfusion between estrus and diestrus.
• Among subfertile/infertile mares suffering from elastosis, uterine perfusion was notably lower than in healthy mares, regardless of the stage of the estrous cycle. This indicates that vascular elastosis is associated with reduced uterine perfusion during either phase of the estrous cycle.

Implications

• A decrease in UBF could potentially have noteworthy consequences in the uterus, including potentially affecting endometrial glandular development, postbreeding endometritis, uterine clearance, and the conceptus’s development.
• The differences in baseline levels of perfusion between healthy and elastosis-affected mares suggest that the latter’s uterine vascular condition could be a contributing factor to their subfertility or infertility issues. Therefore, early detection and treatment of uterine vascular elastosis might improve the fertility outlook for these mares.