Lactate dehydrogenase quantification and isoenzyme distribution in physiological response to stress in red deer (Cervus elaphus).

As a contribution to the description of the physiological response to stress in red deer (Cervus elaphus), the potential use of the intracellular glycolytic enzyme, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and its isoenzyme LDH-5, as a marker of muscle damage was assessed. The distribution of LDH isoenzymes within red deer tissues was similar to that shown in other ruminants: tissue characterisation showed isoenzyme LDH-5 to be particularly associated with skeletal muscle. High plasma concentrations of creatine kinase, a muscle-specific enzyme, were associated with both high total LDH activity and the percentage of LDH-5 activity in deer undergoing a potentially stressful procedure, transportation followed by simulated abattoir lairage, which is further evidence of the specificity of the isoenzyme for skeletal muscle damage. The activity of LDH was not correlated with the plasma concentration of cortisol, a widely used physiological measure of psychological stress. This may have been due to different time courses for release and the fact that, in the present study, the immediate pre-collection procedures may have induced a short-term stress response.