Influence of clinical and experimental intra-articular inflammation on neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin concentrations in horses

Objective

To investigate neutrophil gelatinase‐associated lipocalin (NGAL) concentrations in serum and synovial fluid (SF) from horses with joint inflammation.

Study design

Experimental studies and retrospective clinical study.

Sample population

Serum and SF samples were available from healthy horses (n = 19), clinical cases, and horses with experimental joint inflammation. Clinical cases included horses with (n = 10) or without (n = 10) septic arthritis. Experimental intra‐articular inflammation was induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS; n = 7, severe inflammation), lidocaine (n = 6, moderate inflammation), or mepivacaine (n = 6, mild inflammation).

Methods

Availability of samples was based on approval from the local ethical committee and from the Danish Animal Experiments Inspectorate. Neutrophil gelatinase‐associated lipocalin was measured with a previously validated enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Repeated‐measurements one‐ and two‐way analysis of variance and correlation analysis were used to analyze NGAL concentrations and white blood cell counts (WBC).

Results

After injection of LPS or lidocaine, SF NGAL concentrations increased 343‐ (P = .0035) and 60‐fold (P = .0038) relative to baseline, respectively. Serum NGAL also increased in both groups (P < .05) but to lower concentrations than in SF. Concentrations were higher after injection of lidocaine SF NGAL than after injection of mepivacaine (P < .05) at 6 and 12 hours. Synovial fluid concentrations of NGAL were higher in horses with septic arthritis than in the nonseptic group (P = .0070) and in healthy controls (P = .0071). Concentrations of NGAL correlated with WBC in SF (P < .0001, R² = 0.49) and in blood (P = .0051, R² = 0.27).

Conclusion

Neutrophil gelatinase‐associated lipocalin concentrations increased in SF in response to experimentally induced and naturally occurring joint inflammation. Synovial fluid NGAL concentration correlated with WBC and, thus, seems to reflect intensity of joint inflammation.

Clinical significance

Neutrophil gelatinase‐associated lipocalin may prove to be a useful biomarker of joint inflammation and infection in horses.

Characterization and differentiation of equine experimental local and early systemic inflammation by expression responses of inflammation-related genes in peripheral blood leukocytes

Background

Local inflammation may progress into systemic inflammation. To increase our understanding of the basic immunological processes during transition of equine local inflammation into a systemic state, investigation into the equine systemic immune response to local inflammation is warranted. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the innate peripheral blood leukocyte (PBL) immune response to local inflammation in horses, and to compare this response with the PBL immune response during the early phase of acute systemic inflammation. Expression of 22 selected inflammation-related genes was measured in whole blood leukocytes from 6 horses in an experimental cross-over model of lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced acute synovitis (3 μg LPS intraarticularly; locally inflamed [LI] horses) and endotoxemia (1 μg LPS/kg intravenously; systemically inflamed [SI] horses). Multiple clinical and hematological/biochemical examinations were performed, and serial blood samples were analyzed by reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR. Post-induction expression profiles of all genes were compared between study groups using principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clustering.

Results

Moderate synovitis and mild systemic inflammation of approximately 24 h duration was confirmed by clinical and paraclinical observations in LI and SI horses, respectively. In the LI group, samples obtained 3–16 h post-injection showed distinct clustering in the PCA compared with baseline levels, indicating a transcriptional response to local inflammation in PBLs in this time interval. There was no clinical or hematological indication of actual systemic inflammation. There was a clear separation of all LI samples from all SI samples in two distinct clusters, indicating that expression profiles in the two study groups were different, independent of time since LPS injection. Co-regulated genes formed four clusters across study groups which were distinctly differently regulated. Only few of individual genes displayed different expression between the study groups at all times after LPS injection.

Conclusions

Local inflammation in horses initiated an innate transcriptional response in PBLs, which differed from the transcriptional response during the early phase of systemic inflammation. This study may provide new insights into the immunobiology of PBLs during the transition of local inflammation into a systemic state.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12917-016-0706-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.