Equine Recurrent Uveitis Biomarker Research a Real Eye Opener

Equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) is the most common cause of blindness in horses and is believed to affect approximately 10% of the equine population. The exact cause of ERU remains unclear, although researchers have shown that recurrent bouts of inflammation involving activated T-cells (cells largely responsible for cell-mediated immunity) lead to destruction of the retina.

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Equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) is the most common cause of blindness in horses and is believed to affect approximately 10% of the equine population. The exact cause of ERU remains unclear, although researchers have shown that recurrent bouts of inflammation involving activated T-cells (cells largely responsible for cell-mediated immunity) lead to destruction of the retina.

In an effort to find ways to monitor development of ERU and predict an approaching relapse, Cornelia Deeg and colleagues from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, attempted to identify “biomarkers” of ERU in the blood of affected horses.

The research team collected blood from 20 ERU horses and 20 healthy control horses and removed the small population of highly abundant proteins.This enabled the researchers to then compare the relative concentrations of the remaining serum proteins between the two groups of horses.

The two groups had differing concentrations of 10 serum proteins, including kininogen. Specifically, the researchers found significantly lower blood concentrations of this protein in ERU horses as compared to control horses

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Written by:

Stacey Oke, MSc, DVM, is a practicing veterinarian and freelance medical writer and editor. She is interested in both large and small animals, as well as complementary and alternative medicine. Since 2005, she’s worked as a research consultant for nutritional supplement companies, assisted physicians and veterinarians in publishing research articles and textbooks, and written for a number of educational magazines and websites.

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