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Department of Animal Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada R3T 2N2
Corresponding author: J. C. Plaizier; e-mail: plaizier{at}ms.umanitoba.ca.
| ABSTRACT |
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Key Words: steers subacute ruminal acidosis ruminal pH acute phase response
Abbreviation key: Hp = haptoglobin, LAL = Limulus amebocyte lysate, SAA = serum amyloid-A, SARA = subacute ruminal acidosis.
| INTRODUCTION |
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Lipopolysaccharide from rumen gram-negative bacteria has been implicated in diseases that are related to feeding high concentrate diets such as sudden death syndrome, ruminal acidosis, and laminitis (Dougherty et al., 1975; Nagaraja et al., 1978). There is a paucity of literature on changes in rumen fluid LPS concentration due to feeding high concentrate diets. Nagaraja et al. (1978) demonstrated that steers fed high concentrate diets had considerably higher rumen fluid LPS concentration than steers fed only hay, whereas a more recent study by Andersen et al. (1994) did not find such a relationship. It has been suggested that the acidic rumen environment, changes in osmotic pressure, and ruminal LPS may render the rumen epithelium susceptible to injury (Brent, 1976; Enemark et al., 2002; Kleen et al., 2003). These changes may result in translocation of rumen LPS into the prehepatic bloodstream.
The presence of LPS in the bloodstream results in the production of multiple proinflammatory cytokines, reactive oxygen and nitrogen intermediates, and bioactive lipids, which affect the hosts metabolic response to inflammation (Baumann and Gauldie, 1994). When released in large quantities, these mediators lead to an acute phase response (Kushner and Rzewnicki, 1994). Profiles of concentrations of some acute phase proteins are used as markers for inflammatory response (Baumann and Gauldie, 1994). Haptoglobin (Hp) and serum amyloid-A (SAA) are 2 such proteins that are used as inflammatory markers in cattle (Alsemgeest et al., 1994). Their concentrations are elevated because of tissue damage (Conner et al., 1988) or due to intradermal and intravascular LPS injections (Boosman et al., 1989), bacterial infections (Deignan et al., 2000), or viral infections (Heegaard et al., 2000).
Although acute phase proteins have been used as inflammatory markers in various situations where inflammation is the logical development, no studies have investigated inflammatory responses in cattle with SARA. We hypothesize that SARA leads to increased gram-negative bacterial lysis, which increases ruminal LPS concentration. Rumen wall damage associated with SARA further increases ruminal LPS translocation into the bloodstream, resulting in an inflammatory response. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine changes in rumen fluid LPS, serum Hp, and plasma SAA concentrations in steers due to SARA induced by feeding wheat-barley pellets.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Rumen pH was measured continuously throughout the treatment period by placing one indwelling pH probe into the ventral sac of the rumen of each steer as described by Cumby et al. (2001). Measurements were taken every second and averaged over 60 s. Rumen fluid pH data were summarized as average pH, time below pH 6.0, and time below pH 5.6, area (time x pH) below pH 6.0, and area (time x pH) below pH 5.6 for each 24-h period. Rumen fluid samples were collected into sterile plastic tubes from the ventral sac of the rumen at 0900 and 1400 h every day during the treatment period. Samples were mixed thoroughly before 25 mL was transferred into sterilized centrifuge tubes and centrifuged for 30 min at 10,000 x g. The supernatant was passed through a disposable 0.22-µm sterile, pyrogen-free filter (Millex, Millipore Corporation, Bedford, MA). Samples were further heated at 100°C for 30 min before being stored at 20°C for the determination of rumen LPS concentration using the Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay (Levin and Bang, 1964). The assay was performed using a 96-well microplate (BioWhittaker Inc., Walkersville, MD) with absorbance read at 405 nm using a microplate reader (BioRad model 3550, Hercules, CA). Samples were diluted 1000-fold using pyrogen-free water to determine the noninhibitory dilution, with the final dilution being made of 50% diluted sample and 50% ß-glucan blocker (BioWhittaker kit number N190; component number: B50-700). ß-Glucan blocker blocks the reactivity of LAL to ß-1,3-glucans, conferring increased endotoxin specificity to the LAL test. Noninhibitory dilution is achieved when 75 ± 25% of spike is recovered in positive control samples. An average recovery rate of 78.0 ± 8.6% (n = 8) was achieved in positive controls with a sample dilution of 1:60,000.
Two blood samples (7 mL) were collected by tail venipuncture from each steer on d 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 into serum and plasma tubes at 0900 h. Serum and plasma were harvested by centrifuging samples at 3000 rpm for 30 min. Haptoglobin and SAA were determined in serum and plasma, respectively, using ELISA Tridelta Phase range kits (Tridelta Diagnostics Inc., Cedar Knolls, NJ; catalog numbers TP-801 and TP-802, respectively) (Makimura and Suzuki, 1982; McDonald et al., 1991). For Hp, serum samples were diluted 1:5 with PBS and vortexed. Seventy-five microliters of diluted serum was added to duplicate wells of a 96-well microtiter plate. Stabilized hemoglobin diluted 1:1 with hemoglobin diluent, was added (100 µL) to the diluted sample. Chromogen and substrate, mixed in a ratio of 9:5 (140 µL), were added to the reaction mixture and incubated at room temperature (25°C) for 5 min. Absorbance was read immediately at 630 nm using a microplate spectrophotometer (Spectra Max 340 PC, Molecular Devices Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA). For SAA, plasma samples were diluted 1:500 in diluent buffer and vortexed. Fifty micro-liters was added to each well of a 96-well plate coated with 50 µL of biotinylated antiserum amyloid-A monoclonal antibody (diluted 1:100 in 1x diluent buffer). The microtiter plate was covered and incubated at 37°C for at least 1 h and then washed 4 times with diluted wash buffer to remove unbound material. Streptavidin-horseradish peroxidase conjugate was diluted 1:4000 in diluent buffer and added (100 µL) to each well. The plate was incubated at room temperature (25°C) in darkness for 30 min. The microtiter plate was washed (as described above) and tapped dry. Substrate (100 µL) was added to the plate, which was then incubated at room temperature (25°C) in darkness for an additional 30 min. Stop solution was added, and the plate was read in a microplate reader (BioRad model 3550) at 450 nm.
Statistical Analyses
Data were analyzed using mixed model analysis with the first-order autoregressive covariance structure in Proc Mixed in SAS (SAS Institute, 1996). The following model was used:
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where Yijkl = observations for dependent variables; µ = overall mean;
i = average effect of period i; ßj = average effect of the animal j; Dk = average effect of dietary treatment; (
x ß)ij = animal x period interaction, which was the main plot error; Tl = average effect of time in days for feed intake, or hours since the beginning of feeding concentrate for blood metabolites or endotoxin concentration; (D x T)kl = interaction between time and dietary treatment; and eijkl = subplot error. Lipopolysaccharide concentrations were log transformed because of nonhomogeneous residual error. Orthogonal contrasts were used to compare Hp, SAA, and log-transformed LPS concentrations during the period when only hay was fed with those when concentrate was fed to induce SARA. Mean differences for rumen pH data and DM intake were separated using Tukeys multiple comparison procedure.
| RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
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Serum amyloid-A concentrations were not significantly different among the different diets but concentrations in blood plasma increased from 33.6 ± 36.53 (when only hay was fed) to 170.7 ± 36.53 µg/mL on d 5 (P < 0.001), when concentrate was offered in addition to hay (Figure 1
). Serum amyloid-A is the other major acute phase protein, and is a more sensitive marker of inflammatory challenge than Hp (Horadagoda et al., 1999). The acute phase protein profiles obtained in the present study indicate that as time with pH below 5.6 increased, the intensity of the acute phase response increased (Figure 1
). This could be due to formation of extensive microlesions on the ruminal epithelium leading to increased LPS translocation across the ruminal epithelium into the systemic circulation, which would amplify the acute phase response associated with SARA. To our knowledge, this is the first study that has examined an acute phase response due to SARA.
Therefore, in conclusion, offering steers wheat-barley pellets and chopped alfalfa hay successfully induced SARA, particularly on d 4 and 5 of our study, although DM intake declined from d 1 to 5. Inducing SARA increased the concentration of LPS in rumen fluid, plasma SAA, and serum Hp concentrations. Although SAA concentrations increased within 24 h of feeding concentrate, Hp levels did not change until the third day of feeding concentrate. Inducing SARA increased rumen LPS concentration and initiated an acute phase response. Causal factors for inflammatory response may be an increase in LPS and bacterial translocation into the prehepatic circulation. Further work needs to be done under controlled feed intake conditions to remove possible confounding of LPS concentration with variable feed intake.
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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Received for publication October 15, 2004. Accepted for publication December 9, 2004.
| REFERENCES |
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