Profiling of DHA, EPA, and arachidonic acid pro-resolving mediators in plasma samples of postpartum dairy cows suffering from different degrees of systemic inflammation

• Grant number: 24/18580-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 25, 2025
• End date: June 24, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Clinics and Surgery
• Principal Investigator: Arlindo Saran Netto
• Grantee: Ana Júlia Lacerda dos Santos
• Supervisor: Rafael Neves
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Purdue University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/15975-9 - Effect of dietary supplementation with different sources of organic and inorganic selenium on milk production and composition and on the oxidative profile of blood and milk in lactating Holstein cows., BP.IC

Abstract

Inflammation is a normal process in parturition, however, an impaired inflammatory response is detrimental to cow health, production, and ultimately, longevity. Haptoglobin is a well-studied acute phase protein in dairy cows and consistently associated with postpartum and early-lactation disease, like retained placenta, metritis, displaced abomasum, ketosis and mastitis. Oxylipins are crucial substances in programming the inflammatory response and are known to influence the pro- and anti-inflammatory response. Despite this knowledge, the normal endogenous inflammatory response and its resolution phase remains largely unexplored in cattle. The aim of this study is to better establish a comprehensive understanding of potential mechanisms leading to inflammatory homeostasis (health) or disease in the postpartum dairy cow, with the hypothesis that a lack of specialized of pro-resolving oxylipins is associated with different grades of postpartum systemic inflammation. It will use 24 cows, divided in six cows per group (i.e., healthy, early inflammation, persistent inflammation, and late inflammation) randomly chosen and have plasma samples analyzed for oxylipins via LC-MS/MS. The oxylipins will be tested at 3 time-points (1, 3, and 7 days in milk for each cow to allow for better temporal coverage). Lipidomics in plasma samples will be performed at Bindley Bioscience Center. The Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) will be used to detect and quantify targeted SPMs and SPM precursors.