Orally administered β-glucan improves the hemolytic activity of the complement system in horses

Vet World Vol.14 April-2021 Article-3

Research Article

Veterinary World, 14(4): 835-840

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2021.835-840

Taline Scalco Picetti¹, Lucas de Figueiredo Soveral¹, Rovian Miotto¹, Luana Marina Scheer Erpen¹, Yasmin Kreutz¹, João Antônio Guizzo², Rafael Frandoloso¹, and Luiz Carlos Kreutz¹

1. Laboratório de Microbiologia e Imunologia Avançada, Faculdade de Agronomia e Medicina Veterinária, Universidade de Passo Fundo, 99052-900 Passo Fundo, RS, Brazil.
2. Programa de Pós-Graduaç ão em Medicina Veterinária Preventiva, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, 97105-900 Santa Maria, RS, Brazil.

Background and Aim: Immune-modulating molecules mainly act on innate immune cells, which are central to early defense against invading pathogens and contribute to developing adaptive immunity. Yeast-extracted β-glucan, a model immune-modulating molecule, is widely used in several animal species; however, its effect on horse immune parameters has not been thoroughly investigated yet. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of orally administered β-glucan on selected innate immune parameters in horses.

Materials and Methods: Eighteen thoroughbred horses were assigned equally into three groups as follows: One control group (no β-glucan) and two β-glucan experimental groups (one received 125 mg and the other 2 g of β-glucan per day for 28 days). Blood samples were collected before and at the end of the experiment for hematological analysis, whole blood phagocytosis, respiratory burst assays, and to assess the serum lysozyme and complement hemolytic activities.

Results: At the end of the experiment, significant decreases (p<0.05) in monocyte numbers were observed in the control horses (258.8±45.9 vs. 115.3±41.5) and in those fed 125 mg/day of β-glucan (208.8±72.3 vs. 99.2±60.7), whereas a significant increase in numbers was noted in the horses that were fed 2 g/day of β-glucan (303.5±45.8 vs. 429.8±86.0; p<0.05). The natural hemolytic activity of the complement was higher only in horses fed 2 g/day of β-glucan (p=0.018) compared to the other groups. The hemolytic activity in the classical pathway was higher in those fed 125 mg/day (p=0.0035) and 2 g/day of β-glucan (p=0.0001).

Conclusion: β-glucan improves important innate immune parameters and might be fed to horses before stressful events. Keywords: animals, glucans, monocytes, muramidase.

Keywords: animals, glucans, monocytes, muramidase.

How to cite this article: Picetti TS, Soveral LF, Miotto R, Erpen LMS, Kreutz Y, Guizzo JA, Frandoloso R, Kreutz LC (2021) Orally administered β-glucan improves the hemolytic activity of the complement system in horses, Veterinary World, 14(4): 835-840.

Received: 02-12-2020 Accepted: 22-02-2021 Published online: 05-04-2021

Corresponding author: Luiz Carlos Kreutz E-mail: lckreutz@upf.br

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.835-840

Copyright: Picetti, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.