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Home / Equine Research Bank / Equine Vet J / Histological tissue healing following high-power laser treat...
Equine veterinary journal2022; 54(6); 1114-1122; doi: 10.1111/evj.13556

Histological tissue healing following high-power laser treatment in a model of suspensory ligament branch injury.

Abstract: High-power laser therapy gained popularity recently as a regenerative treatment for tendinitis and desmitis in the horse. However, studies evaluating the effects of laser therapy on tissue repair at the histological level in large mammals are lacking. Objective: To evaluate the effects of high-power laser therapy on suspensory desmitis healing, using a model of suspensory ligament branch injury. Methods: In vivo experiments. Methods: Standardised lesions were surgically induced in all four lateral suspensory branches of 12 healthy Warmblood horses. Laser therapy (class 4, 15W) was applied daily on two of four induced lesions for four consecutive weeks. Horses were randomly assigned to either short-term study (horses were sacrificed after 4 weeks) or long-term study (6 months). Suspensory ligament samples were scored after staining with haematoxylin-eosin and immunostaining for collagen 1- collagen 3- and factor VIII. Results: In the short-term study, significantly better (lower) scores for variation in density (17% above cut-off score in treated lesions vs. 31% above cut-off score in controls, P = .03), shape of nuclei (54% vs 92%, P = .02), fibre alignment (32% vs 75%, P = .003) and fibre structure (38% vs 71%, P = .02) were found in laser-treated lesions when compared to controls. Collagen 3 expression was significantly higher (32% vs 19%, P = .006) in control lesions. In both short- and long-term studies combined, parameters lesion size (44% vs 56%, P = .02) and shape of nuclei (53% vs 84%, P = .05) scored significantly better in treated lesions. Long-term, significantly better (lower) scores were found in the laser-treated group for lesion size (15% vs 45%, P = .008) and a higher percentage above cut-off score for density of the nuclei (27% vs 9%, P = .02), compared to controls. Conclusions: The model of suspensory branch injury is not an exact representation of clinical overstrain lesions. Conclusions: These results suggest that high-power laser therapy enables better lesion healing than conservative treatment.
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Publication Date: 2022-01-20 PubMed ID: 35008124DOI: 10.1111/evj.13556Google Scholar: Lookup
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  • Journal Article
  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Veterinary

Summary

This research summary has been generated with artificial intelligence and may contain errors and omissions. Refer to the original study to confirm details provided. Submit correction.

The research article presents a study on the impact of high-power laser therapy on the healing of suspensory desmitis (ligament inflammation) in horses. The results indicate that this treatment leads to better tissue repair and healing compared to non-laser treated controls.

Study Objective and Methodology

  • The aim of this study was to understand the effect of high-power laser therapy on the healing of suspensory ligament branch injuries in horses.
  • Standardized injuries were surgically induced in all four lateral suspensory branches of 12 healthy Warmblood horses. Laser therapy (class 4) was applied daily to two of four induced lesions for a period of four weeks.
  • The horses selected for the study were randomly divided into short-term and long-term studies. In the short-term study, the horses were examined after 4 weeks of treatment, whereas in the long-term study, assessment was carried out after 6 months.
  • The suspensory ligament samples were analyzed by staining them with haematoxylin-eosin and immunostaining markers for collagen and factor VIII related to tissue repair.

Findings

  • For the short-term study, the group that received laser treatment had significantly better results on a number of metrics involving tissue integrity such as variation in density, shape of the nucleus, fiber alignment, and fiber structure, compared to the control group.
  • In both short-term and long-term combined studies, the treated lesions scored better on parameters of lesion size and shape of nuclei than the untreated controls. For the long-term studies, the laser-treated group had better scores for lesion size and density of nuclei.
  • However, the expression of collagen 3, a protein that is essential in the wound healing process, was noticeably higher in control lesions when compared to laser-treated lesions in the short-term study.

Conclusions

  • The research acknowledges the limitation that the surgically induced injuries in the study are not completely representative of common overstrain injuries in a clinical setting.
  • Despite this limitation, the study concludes that high-power laser therapy improves the healing of ligament injuries at a histological level. This is demonstrated by the better (lower) scores observed in the study parameters in the laser-treated group as compared to the controls.

Cite This Article

APA
Pluim M, Heier A, Plomp S, Boshuizen B, Gröne A, van Weeren R, Vanderperren K, Martens A, Dewulf J, Chantziaras I, Koene M, Luciani A, Oosterlinck M, Van Brantegem L, Delesalle C. (2022). Histological tissue healing following high-power laser treatment in a model of suspensory ligament branch injury. Equine Vet J, 54(6), 1114-1122. https://doi.org/10.1111/evj.13556

Publication

Equine veterinary journal
ISSN: 2042-3306
NlmUniqueID: 0173320
Country: United States
Language: English
Volume: 54
Issue: 6
Pages: 1114-1122

Researcher Affiliations

Pluim, Mathilde
  • Department of Virology, Parasitology and Immunology, Research group of Comparative Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
  • Tierklinik Lüsche GmbH, Bakum, Germany.
Heier, Annabelle
  • Department of Biomolecular Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Plomp, Saskia
  • Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Boshuizen, Berit
  • Department of Virology, Parasitology and Immunology, Research group of Comparative Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Gröne, Andrea
  • Department of Biomolecular Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
van Weeren, René
  • Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Vanderperren, Katrien
  • Department of Veterinary Medical Imaging and Small Animal Orthopedics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Martens, Ann
  • Department of Surgery and Anesthesiology of Domestic Animals, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Dewulf, Jeroen
  • Unit of Veterinary Epidemiology, Department of Obstetrics, Reproduction and Herd Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Chantziaras, Ilias
  • Unit of Veterinary Epidemiology, Department of Obstetrics, Reproduction and Herd Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Koene, Marc
  • Tierklinik Lüsche GmbH, Bakum, Germany.
Luciani, Antonio
  • Tierklinik Lüsche GmbH, Bakum, Germany.
Oosterlinck, Maarten
  • Department of Surgery and Anesthesiology of Domestic Animals, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Van Brantegem, Leen
  • Department of Pathology, Bacteriology and Poultry Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Delesalle, Cathérine
  • Department of Virology, Parasitology and Immunology, Research group of Comparative Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
  • Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

MeSH Terms

  • Animals
  • Eosine Yellowish-(YS)
  • Factor VIII
  • Horse Diseases / pathology
  • Horses
  • Joint Diseases / veterinary
  • Ligaments / injuries
  • Mammals

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Citations

This article has been cited 2 times.
  1. Jacobs C, Schnabel LV, Redding Horne C, Tufts S, Martin EGM, Love K. Postoperative management following equine orthopedic surgery: a survey of diplomates of the ACVS and ACVSMR. Front Vet Sci 2025;12:1708401.
    doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1708401pubmed: 41427135google scholar: lookup
  2. Guest DJ, Birch HL, Thorpe CT. A review of the equine suspensory ligament: Injury prone yet understudied. Equine Vet J 2025 Sep;57(5):1167-1182.
    doi: 10.1111/evj.14447pubmed: 39604165google scholar: lookup
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