Unaccustomed, strenuous exercise can cause skeletal muscle damage that subsequently induces an acute inflammatory response in the tissue which is marked by an infiltration of leukocytes into the damaged muscle. To try and suppress the initial pro-inflammatory response in skeletal muscle of horses performing a single exercise stress test, a commercial sodium hyaluronate (HA) treatment was administered and tested for anti-inflammatory properties. Unfit, adult Thoroughbreds were intravenously injected three times with HA or received no injection at all (CON) over a 3-week period before performing a single submaximal exercise test. Gluteal muscle biopsies were collected before and 1 h after the completion of exercise for RNA-Seq and staining. The results indicated that HA treatment in horses down regulated genes associated with lymphocyte activation and cytokine production (Il17RA, OSCAR, LYL1, TLR1, TLR2, TLR8, TLR10) but did not irreversibly down regulate these genes with the addition of exercise. Exercise as a stressor did cause an acute inflammatory response in muscle which was seen through global expression of macrophage and neutrophil surface markers (NCF2, ELANE, CD168I). These results determine that HA treatment does act as an anti-inflammatory in equine skeletal muscle but does not possess prolonged effects with the initiation of inflammation. / Master of Science / Horses subjected to an unaccustomed increase in exercise intensity can experience damage and subsequent acute inflammation within the skeletal muscle tissue that may hinder the performance of the horse by causing muscle swelling and soreness. Hyaluronic acid treatment may suppress this exercise-induced inflammatory response by acting as an anti-inflammatory in the muscle. Adult Thoroughbred horses were injected intravenously with a commercial sodium hyaluronate treatment in the weeks prior to performing an exercise stress test. Muscle biopsy samples were obtained before and after the exercise stress test was performed. The results indicate that horses receiving the hyaluronic acid treatment had decreased expression of inflammatory genes within skeletal muscle, but no genes remained suppressed after the induction of inflammation through exercise. These results demonstrate that hyaluronic acid treatment does act as an anti-inflammatory in skeletal muscle tissue but does not have long-term suppressive effects when inflammation does occur.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/116059 |
| Date | 18 August 2023 |
| Creators | Gregg, Savannah Renee |
| Contributors | Animal and Poultry Sciences, Johnson, Sally E., Gilbert, Elizabeth Ruth, Gerrard, David E. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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