GI10 - Altered Fecal and Serum Amino Acid Concentrations in Dogs with Chronic Enteropathy

Abstract: Background - Amino acids (AA) affect many metabolic processes and serve as an important energy source for enterocytes. Alterations in plasma or serum AA concentrations have previously been reported in dogs and cats with gastrointestinal (GI) disease. However, studies suggest that measurement of fecal AA may be more useful in discriminating human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients from healthy controls.



Objectives - Compare fecal and serum AA concentrations between dogs with chronic enteropathy (CE) and healthy control dogs (HC).



Animals – Feces and serum were collected from HC dogs (n = 29 and 23, respectively) and dogs with CE (n = 29 and 15, respectively). GI biopsies were also collected (stomach, small intestine, colon; HC = 13 and CE = 8).



Methods – Retrospective cross-sectional study. Fecal and serum AA concentrations (measured on an Agilent HPLC and Biochrom 30+ AA analyser, respectively) were compared between groups with Mann-Whitney tests. Correlation analysis was performed between fecal and serum AA concentrations and histopathological scores. Results were corrected for multiple comparisons using Benjamini-Hochberg method.



Results - Fecal concentrations of tryptophan were significantly higher (Q = .023) in dogs with CE than in HC dogs. Serum concentrations of valine were significantly higher (Q = .026) in dogs with CE than in HC. After correction for multiple comparisons, all correlations with histopathological scores failed to reach statistical significance.



Conclusions – Fecal and serum AA profiles are altered in dogs with CE. Therefore, some AA may have the potential to be used as future therapeutic targets.