Acute phase response to Mycoplasma haemofelis and ‘Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum’ infection in FIV-infected and non-FIV-infected cats

R.M Korman,S Tasker,P.D Eckersall,E.N Barker,T.G Knowles,J.J Cerón

doi:10.1016/j.tvjl.2011.12.009

Abstract

The pathogenicity of Haemoplasma spp. in cats varies with ‘Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum’ (CMhm) causing subclinical infection while Mycoplasma haemofelis (Mhf) often induces haemolytic anaemia. The aims of this study were to characterise the acute phase response (APR) of the cat to experimental infection with Mhf or CMhm, and to determine whether chronic feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection influences this response. The acute phase proteins serum amyloid A (SAA), haptoglobin (Hp) and α-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP) concentrations were measured pre-infection and every 7–14 days up to day 100 post-infection (pi) in cats infected with either Mhf or CMhm. Half of each group of cats (6/12) were chronically and subclinically infected with FIV. Marbofloxacin treatment was given on days 16–44 pi to half of the Mhf-infected cats, and on days 49–77 pi to half of the CMhm-infected cats.FIV-infected animals had significantly lower AGP concentrations, and significantly greater Hp concentrations than non-FIV-infected cats when infected with CMhm and Mhf, respectively. Both CMhm and Mhf infection were associated with significant increases in SAA concentrations, while AGP concentrations were only significantly increased by Mhf infection. Mhf-infected cats had significantly greater SAA concentrations than CMhm-infected animals. Both Mhf and CMhm infections were associated with an APR, with Mhf infection inducing a greater response. Chronic FIV infection appeared to modify the APR, which varied with the infecting Haemoplasma species.

Highlights

In the present study lower acid glycoprotein (AGP) concentrations were found in feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)-infected compared with non-FIV-infected animals following Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum’ (CMhm) infection and higher Hp concentrations occurred in FIV-infected compared with non-FIVinfected cats infected with Mycoplasma haemofelis (Mhf)
While these results were statistically significant, measurements for each group of cats remained within reference intervals and numbers in each group were small. These results are in contrast to those of Duthie et al (1997), where acute phase protein (APP) were measured at a single time-point in six cats with terminal, FIV-associated disease
This study found that 5/6 and 4/6 cats had AGP and Hp concentrations above the reference intervals, respectively

Summary

Introduction

The acute phase response (APR) is part of the innate immune response, characterised by changes in serum acute phase protein (APP) concentrations (Cerón et al, 2005), which can be used as diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers (Cerón et al, 2005; Griebsch et al, 2009; Mitchell et al, 2009). Measurement of APPs is widely used in human medicine (Berbari et al, 2010; Patel et al, 2010; Sage et al, 2010), and there is increasing interest in their use in companion animals (Eckersall, 2010), there.

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