R05 - Metabolomic Profiling of Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid in Pet Cats with Asthma and Non-asthmatic Respiratory Diseases

Abstract: Background – The lung microbiota, characterized in spontaneous and experimentally asthmatic cats, deviates from health. Taxonomic studies are limited by inability to provide functional information including metabolic profiles. Alterations in the lower airway microbiota affect the generation of local metabolites which may have implications for disease development or progression.
Objectives/Hypothesis – We hypothesize gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) will allow characterization of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) metabolites and show distinct differences between asthmatic and non-asthmatic cats.
Animals - Client-owned cats with asthma (n=8) and non-asthmatic respiratory disease (n=5) undergoing BALF collection.
Methods – Banked BALF was processed using GC-MS and analyzed with MetaboAnalyst. PERMANOVA was used to compare overall metabolite composition between groups and a volcano plot was used to identify significant differences in metabolites between groups (p< 0.05 significant).
Results – The metabolome in BALF of asthmatic cats was significantly different compared to non-asthmatic cats (p = 0.0155; F = 5.256). A volcano plot showed 13 metabolites had at least a 2-fold difference and p < 0.5 between asthmatic and non-asthmatic cats. While most of the metabolites are unknown, threonic acid, ribose and arabinose were significantly higher in asthmatic cats.
Conclusions – Using GC-MS, metabolites were detected in BALF, a dilute sample reflecting the respiratory environment. Specific metabolites including threonic acid, ribose and arabinose were significantly different between asthmatic and non-asthmatic cats. Future studies should focus correlating the microbiota with the metabolome in asthmatic cats.