Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, 00014, Helsinki, Finland.
School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Eastern Finland, 70211, Kuopio, Finland.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jun 17;13(1):9821. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-36697-x.
Equine asthma (EA) is an inflammatory disease of the lower airways driven by mediators released from cells. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are vehicles for lipid mediators, which possess either pro-inflammatory or dual anti-inflammatory and pro-resolving functions. In this study, we investigated how the respiratory fatty acid (FA) profile reflects airway inflammatory status. The FA composition of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), BALF supernatant, and bronchoalveolar EVs of healthy horses (n = 15) and horses with mild/moderate EA (n = 10) or severe EA (SEA, n = 5) was determined with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The FA profiles distinguished samples with different diagnoses in all sample types, yet they were insufficient to predict the health status of uncategorized samples. Different individual FAs were responsible for the discrimination of the diagnoses in different sample types. Particularly, in the EVs of SEA horses the proportions of palmitic acid (16:0) decreased and those of eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3) increased, and all sample types of asthmatic horses had elevated dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (20:3n-6) proportions. The results suggest simultaneous pro-inflammatory and resolving actions of FAs and a potential role for EVs as vehicles for lipid mediators in asthma pathogenesis. EV lipid manifestations of EA can offer translational targets to study asthma pathophysiology and treatment options.
马气喘病（EA）是一种由细胞释放的介质驱动的下呼吸道炎症性疾病。细胞外囊泡（EVs）是脂质介质的载体，具有促炎或双重抗炎和促解决功能。在这项研究中，我们研究了呼吸脂肪酸（FA）谱如何反映气道炎症状态。使用气相色谱和质谱法测定了 15 匹健康马和 10 匹轻度/中度 EA（n=10）或严重 EA（SEA，n=5）马的支气管肺泡灌洗液（BALF）、BALF 上清液和支气管肺泡 EVs 的 FA 组成。在所有样本类型中，FA 谱均能区分不同诊断的样本，但不足以预测未分类样本的健康状况。不同的个体 FA 负责区分不同样本类型的诊断。特别是在 SEA 马的 EV 中，棕榈酸（16:0）的比例降低，二十碳五烯酸（20:5n-3）的比例增加，所有哮喘马的样本类型中，二同型-γ-亚麻酸（20:3n-6）的比例都升高。结果表明 FA 具有同时的促炎和解决作用，EV 可能作为哮喘发病机制中脂质介质的载体发挥作用。EA 的 EV 脂质表现可以为研究哮喘病理生理学和治疗选择提供转化目标。
