Abstract
Early pregnancy loss occurs in 6–10% of equine pregnancies making it the main cause of reproductive wastage. Despite this, reasons for the losses are known in only 16% of cases. Lack of viable conceptus material has inhibited investigations of many potential genetic and pathological causes. We present a method for isolating and culturing placental cells from failed early equine pregnancies. Trophoblast cells from 18/30 (60%) failed equine pregnancies of gestational ages 14–65 days were successfully cultured in three different media, with the greatest growth achieved for cells cultured in AmnioChrome™ Plus. Genomic DNA of a suitable quality for molecular assays was also isolated from 29/30 of these cases. This method will enable future investigations determining pathologies causing EPL.
Highlights
Pregnancy loss (EPL) remains a significant cause of reproductive wastage in mammals [1,2,3,4,5] but the underlying aetiologies are often unknown [6,7]
Conceptuses were collected by the attending veterinary surgeon using non-invasive sterile uterine lavage
Swabs were cultured on blood agar and MacConkey agar at Newmarket Equine Hospital Laboratory or Beaufort Cottage Laboratory
Summary
Pregnancy loss (EPL) remains a significant cause of reproductive wastage in mammals [1,2,3,4,5] but the underlying aetiologies are often unknown [6,7]. A retrospective study in horses showed a speculative cause for EPL was found in just 16% of cases [8]. The absence of suitable methods to (i) obtain viable EPL conceptus material and (ii) isolate and culture trophoblast cells from these conceptuses, has limited investigations to determine further causes.
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