Influence of obesity on serum concentrations of acute phase proteins in horses

Abstract Obesity in human and veterinary medicine is one of the most complex challenges within emerging diseases in the context of health. The problem of obesity in horses results in severe comorbidities, therefore, acute phase proteins (APPs) should be investigated for fluctuations increasing or decreasing by at least 25 % in response to inflammation; these are candidates for future biomarkers and might provide new perspectives on early diagnosis and prognosis. Serum samples were analyzed in nine healthy animals (C) and nine obese animals (O). The proteins were separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and the concentrations determined by computerized densitometry; MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry was performed to identify the proteins and the results obtained were compared to the Equidae and Metazoa taxon protein database deposited in UNIPROT using the MASCOT application. Three proteins presented a difference between the groups; ceruloplasmin (Cp), α1-antitrypsin (α1-antitryp), and haptoglobin (Hp). The behavior of the Cp and Hp proteins was compatible with the available literature for obesity in other species. The α1-antitryp protein was positively correlated with leptin, demonstrating the need for further investigations. The initial study of these proteins was important due to the lack of information available on the influence of obesity on inflammatory biomarkers in horses in Brazil, therefore, we sought to verify a possible association between overweight and changes in the studied variables.