LAMINITIS
Dr. Samantha Brooks.
MAJOR FOOT FORWARD
Making Breakthroughs in Understanding Laminitis B y
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Issue 1/2022 | ModernEquineVet.com
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(UF) and Pennsylvania (PennVet) made a major breakthrough in understanding laminitis. They looked at genetic information specific to hoof tissues to see what genes and proteins are involved in the process with the hope that there will 1 day be not only a noninvasive test for the disease, but treatments that target the inflammatory process itself. “We have very few tools in our arsenal to manage the disease itself. We treat symptoms, pain and mechanical instability but do not have anything to target the cause just yet,” said Samantha Brooks, PhD, an associate professor of equine physiology at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS). That’s because studies have been hindered by the scarcity of genetic information specific to hoof tissues. Scientists from the UF/IFAS and the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine tapped into PennVet’s New Bolton Center Laminitis Discovery Database, an archive of data and sample sets from naturally occurring laminitis cases collected since 2008. They examined 36 archived tissues of 20 Thoroughbred horses treated for laminitis. There are 3 types of laminitis, and all impair the structure and function of the horse’s foot. This research provided a snapshot of the active pathways and functions of the hoof, with a focus on supporting limb laminitis—the laminitis that lead to the death of the famous racehorse, Barbaro, in 2007. “We understand the situations that trigger an episode of laminitis, but we do not have a good understanding of what is happening in the hoof,” said Dr. Brooks, who specializes in equine genetics. “This study took a very comprehensive view of the processes early in the development of laminitis.” Using gene expression analysis, Dr. Brooks and her colleagues catalogued the changes in gene transcription in archived lamellar tissue from 20 Thoroughbred racehorses to identify trends in the disease process. They looked at tissue from horses with healthy hooves, horses with early disease and others with more severe disease. “By tapping into my lab’s database and incorporating Dr. Brooks’ unparalleled expertise in equine genetics and transcriptome analysis, we have identified new and promising pathways in cell stress and inflammatory response that significantly enhance our understanding of supporting limb laminitis and its disease processes,” said Hannah Galantino-Homer, VMD, PhD, DACT, a senior investigator in laminitis research at New Bolton. They found alterations in cell replication and growth, as well as gene expression and proteins that could serve
Image courtesy of UF/IFAS
A joint study between the Universities of Florida
