Abstract
Different laboratory markers are routinely used in the diagnosis and management of gastrointestinal (GI) disease in dogs. In the present study, starting from feces from both healthy dogs and dogs suffering from food responsive diarrhea (FRD), we tried to find proteins differently expressed in the two groups of dogs, by using a proteomic approach. Interestingly, we found that the immunoglobulin J-chain isoform 1 (species: Canis lupus familiaris) was identified only in diseased dogs (not in healthy). J-chain combines especially IgA monomers to IgA dimers and plays a crucial role for their secretions into mucosal interface. Being the first study of that kind in the dog, it is only possible to hypothesize that their presence could be likely due to an increased activation of the immune system or to a mucosal damage or both in FRD patients. Similarly, it is still impossible to assess whether this protein could be used as diagnostic/prognostic marker of GI disease; however, this study represents a promising first step toward fecal proteomics in canine GI disorders.
Highlights
Food responsive diarrhea (FRD) is included in the group of canine chronic enteropathies (CCE) [1] and is considered as the presence of a gastrointestinal (GI) disease lasting from more than 3 weeks that clinically improve after the administration of specific diets or of diets containing hydrolyzed proteins [2]
PDQuest analysis revealed the presence of 12 spots differentially expressed in the fecal samples of healthy subjects and in the subjects affected to food responsive diarrhea (FRD)
J-chain a is a polypeptide of 15 kDa containing eight cysteine residues of which six are involved in intrachain disulfide bridges and two in disulfide bridges with the α or μ chains. This polypeptide contains one site of Nglycosylation [30]. We found this protein to be present only in FRD patients, and this finding is noticeable considering that IgA deficiencies have been associated with chronic enteropathies in the dog [38], and that no differences in J-chain encoding mRNA were found between healthy dogs and patients with chronic diarrhea [31]
Summary
Food responsive diarrhea (FRD) is included in the group of canine chronic enteropathies (CCE) [1] and is considered as the presence of a gastrointestinal (GI) disease lasting from more than 3 weeks that clinically improve after the administration of specific diets (elimination diet) or of diets containing hydrolyzed proteins [2]. The diagnosis is made after a positive response to the dietary trial, and even if some specific fecal markers have been investigated in dogs suffering from GI disease (e.g., fecal α1-proteinase inhibitor, N-methylhistamine, fecal calprotectin, S100A12, etc.) [3,4,5,6,7], a fecal proteomic study has never been performed on canine FRD patients. Proteomic analyses have been performed in some pathological conditions of the dog such as tumors (e.g., mammary gland, cutaneous mast cell tumors, lymphoma, and prostate), muscular dystrophy, lethal acrodermatitis, babesiosis, mitral valve disease, obesity-related metabolic dysfunction, reduced renal function and tubulointerstitial fibrosis, etc. The aim of the present study was to detect and identify, by a proteomic approach, for the first time in the dog, most represented proteins in feces from healthy dogs of different breeds and in dogs suffering from food responsive diarrhea and to compare results between the two groups of dogs Proteomic analyses have been performed in some pathological conditions of the dog such as tumors (e.g., mammary gland, cutaneous mast cell tumors, lymphoma, and prostate), muscular dystrophy, lethal acrodermatitis, babesiosis, mitral valve disease, obesity-related metabolic dysfunction, reduced renal function and tubulointerstitial fibrosis, etc. [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21].
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