Relationship of plasma concentration of angiotensin converting enzime (ACE) and performance of Arabian horses undergoing long term exercise

• Grant number: 11/15341-2
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: November 01, 2011
• End date: October 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Clinics and Surgery
• Principal Investigator: José Corrêa de Lacerda Neto
• Grantee: José Corrêa de Lacerda Neto
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Ana Maria Guerreiro Braga da Silva ; André Desjardins Antunes ; Lina Maria Wehrle Gomide ; Nara Saraiva Bernardi

Abstract

Studies with endurance horses submitted to long term exercise have focus on its individual performance. In Human sports medicine, many studies were done measuring the plasma concentration of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) and correlating it to elite marathon runners, which had showed lower plasma concentration of this enzyme. Unfortunately there's little work done in veterinary medicine concerning sports activities with plasma activity of ACE. Therefore, in this study it's intended to evaluate plasma ACE activity of endurance horses and correlate it to the performance. Ten healthy adult Arab horses will be used in this experiment. They will undergo a period of four months of rest before the training period. Before starting and after the training period, a progressive exercise test (PET) will be carried out in order to determine the horse's fitness and set the training protocol. Four months of training will be performed, and at the end of this training period, one week after the second PET, the horses will be submitted to an exercise test (ET) of 80 km long. Before, during and after the ET, blood samples will be collected for CBC, blood gas analyses and to determine lactate concentration and ACE's activity. All the collected data will be analyzed by statistical analyses. (AU)