Effect of Age, Season, Body Condition, and Endocrine Status on Serum Free Cortisol Fraction and Insulin Concentration in Horses

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Abstract

Background

Increased free cortisol fraction is associated with insulin dysregulation ( ID) in people with Metabolic Syndrome and Cushing's Disease. Free cortisol has not been investigated in equine endocrine disorders.

Hypotheses

(1) In healthy horses, sex, age, body condition score ( BCS), and season impact free cortisol; (2) free cortisol is increased in horses with Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction ( PPID) or Equine Metabolic Syndrome ( EMS).

Animals

Fifty‐seven healthy horses; 40 horses and ponies with PPID (n = 20) or EMS (n = 20).

Methods

Prospective study. Serum collected seasonally from healthy animals and archived serum from PPID and EMS animals was analyzed for insulin, total and free cortisol concentrations, and free cortisol fraction ( FCF). Linear mixed models were used to determine effects of age, sex, season, and BCS on hormones in controls. Hormone measurements were compared between disease groups and age‐ and season‐matched controls with t‐tests. EMS and hyperinsulinemic PPID animals were combined in an ID (hyperinsulinemia) group.

Results

Free cortisol concentrations were increased in overweight/obese controls (0.3 ± 0.1 μg/dL) compared to lean controls (0.2 ± 0.1 μg/dL; P = .017). Mean FCF was significantly higher in animals with PPID (8.8 ± 5.8 μg/dL, P = .005) or ID (8.8 ± 10.2 μg/dL, P = .039) than controls (5.0 ± 0.9 μg/dL), but total cortisol concentrations were similar ( P ≥ .350) ( PPID: 4.2 ± 4.3 μg/dL; ID: 5.0 ± 4.5 μg/dL; controls: 4.6 ± 1.7 and 5.1 ± 2.1 μg/dL).

Conclusions and Clinical Importance

Increased FCF is associated with obesity in healthy horses and with ID (hyperinsulinemia) in horses and ponies with endocrine disease. Decreased plasma cortisol‐binding capacity could be a component of these endocrine disorders in horses.

Related collections

Most cited references 56

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Cushing's syndrome.

John Newell-Price, Xavier Bertagna, Ashley B. Grossman … (2006)

Cushing's syndrome results from lengthy and inappropriate exposure to excessive glucocorticoids. Untreated, it has significant morbidity and mortality. The syndrome remains a challenge to diagnose and manage. Here, we review the current understanding of pathogenesis, clinical features, diagnostic, and differential diagnostic approaches. We provide diagnostic algorithms and recommendations for management.

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Article: not found

Relationship between condition score, physical measurements and body fat percentage in mares.

D R Henneke, G Potter, J. Kreider … (1983)

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Inflammatory networks in ageing, age-related diseases and longevity.

Domenico Nuzzo, Carmela R. Balistreri, Calogero Caruso … (2006)

Inflammation is considered a response set by the tissues in response to injury elicited by trauma or infection. It is a complex network of molecular and cellular interactions that facilitates a return to physiological homeostasis and tissue repair. The individual response against infection and trauma is also determined by gene variability. Ageing is accompanied by chronic low-grade inflammation state clearly showed by 2-4-fold increase in serum levels of inflammatory mediators. A wide range of factors has been claimed to contribute to this state; however, the most important role seems to be played by the chronic antigenic stress, which affects immune system thorough out life with a progressive activation of macrophages and related cells. This pro-inflammatory status, interacting with the genetic background, potentially triggers the onset of age-related inflammatory diseases as atherosclerosis. Thus, the analysis of polymorphisms of the genes that are key nodes of the natural immunity response might clarify the patho-physiology of age-related inflammatory diseases as atherosclerosis. On the other hand, centenarians are characterized by marked delay or escape from age-associated diseases that, on average, cause mortality at earlier ages. In addition, centenarian offspring have increased likelihood of surviving to 100 years and show a reduced prevalence of age-associated diseases, as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and less prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors. So, genes involved in CVD may play an opposite role in human longevity. Thus, the model of centenarians can be used to understand the role of these genes in successful and unsuccessful ageing. Accordingly, we report the results of several studies in which the frequencies of pro-inflammatory alleles were significantly higher in patients affected by infarction and lower in centenarians whereas age-related controls displayed intermediate values. These findings point to a strong relationship between the genetics of inflammation, successful ageing and the control of cardiovascular disease at least in men, in which these studies were performed. These data are also briefly discussed in the light of antagonistic pleiotropy theory and in order to pursuit a pharmacogenomics approach.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Vet Intern Med

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J. Vet. Intern. Med

Journal ID (doi): 10.1111/(ISSN)1939-1676

Journal ID (publisher-id): JVIM

Title: Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine

Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc. (Hoboken )

ISSN (Print): 0891-6640

ISSN (Electronic): 1939-1676

Publication date (Electronic): 09 February 2016

Publication date (Print): Mar-Apr 2016

Volume: 30

Issue: 2 ( doiID: 10.1111/jvim.2016.30.issue-2 )

Pages: 653-663

Affiliations

[ ¹ ]University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine Athens GA

[ ² ]Oklahoma State College of Veterinary Medicine Stillwater OK

[ ³ ]Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine Auburn AL

[ ⁴ ] Cummings School of Veterinary MedicineTufts University North GraftonMA

Author notes

[*] [* ]Corresponding author: Kelsey A. Hart, Department of Large Animal Medicine, University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, Athens, GA 30602; e‐mail: khart4@ 123456uga.edu .

Article

Publisher ID: JVIM13839

DOI: 10.1111/jvim.13839

PMC ID: 4913614

PubMed ID: 26860336

SO-VID: e69cb117-a9a9-46cc-a165-7924f0b711ba

License:

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

History

Date received : 29 July 2015

Date revision received : 04 November 2015

Date accepted : 18 January 2016

Page count

Pages: 11

Funding

Funded by: Veterinary Medical Experiment Station, University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine

Custom metadata

source-schema-version-number 2.0

component-id jvim13839

cover-date March/April 2016

details-of-publishers-convertor Converter:WILEY_ML3GV2_TO_NLMPMC version:4.9.1 mode:remove_FC converted:17.06.2016

ScienceOpen disciplines: Veterinary medicine

Keywords: equine,equine metabolic syndrome,insulin resistance,obesity,pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction,steroid

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Veterinary medicine

Keywords: equine, equine metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, obesity, pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction, steroid

Effect of Age, Season, Body Condition, and Endocrine Status on Serum Free Cortisol Fraction and Insulin Concentration in Horses

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Abstract

Background

Hypotheses

Animals

Methods

Results

Conclusions and Clinical Importance

Related collections

Karger: Nutrition and Dietetics

Most cited references 56

Cushing's syndrome.

Relationship between condition score, physical measurements and body fat percentage in mares.

Inflammatory networks in ageing, age-related diseases and longevity.

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