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. 2021 Dec 20;11(12):3608.
doi: 10.3390/ani11123608.

Tryptophan, Kynurenine and Kynurenic Acid Concentrations in Milk and Serum of Dairy Cows with Prototheca Mastitis

Mariola Bochniarz  1 , Tomasz Piech  1 , Tomasz Kocki  2 , Mateusz Iskra  3 , Henryk Krukowski  4 , Tomasz Jagielski  3
Affiliations

Tryptophan, Kynurenine and Kynurenic Acid Concentrations in Milk and Serum of Dairy Cows with Prototheca Mastitis

Mariola Bochniarz et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

The aim of this work was to investigate serum and milk levels of tryptophan (TRP), kynurenine (KYN), and kynurenic acid (KYNA), as well as the activity of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) in cows with mastitis due to Prototheca algae. The study was prompted by previous research showing a link between the KYN pathway of TRP metabolism and bovine mastitis of bacterial etiology. The study was carried out over a 2-year period (2018-2019) and included quarter milk and serum samples collected from six dairy herds in Poland. The samples were obtained from healthy cows and cows with Prototheca mastitis of either clinical and subclinical manifestation, as determined upon direct measurement of the somatic cell count or indirectly by performing a California Mastitis Test on suspected quarters. Both TRP and KYN concentrations were significantly lower in milk of mastitic cows compared to healthy animals (0.8 vs. 8.72 µM, p = 0.001; 0.07 vs. 0.32 µM, p = 0.001, respectively). The difference in TRP and KYN concentrations in the sera of the two animal groups was much less pronounced (25.55 vs. 27.57 µM, 3.03 vs. 3.56 nM, respectively). The concentration of KYNA was almost at the same level in milk (1.73 vs. 1.70 nM) and in serum (80.47 vs. 75.48 nM) of both mastitic and healthy cows. The data showed that the level of TRP and its metabolites in serum was conspicuously higher compared to milk in all cows under the study. The activity of IDO was significantly higher in milk of cows with Prototheca mastitis compared to healthy animals (71.4 vs. 40.86, p < 0.05), while in serum it was pretty much the same (135.94 vs. 124.98, p > 0.05). The IDO activity differed significantly between serum and milk both for mastitic (135.94 vs. 71.4, p < 0.05) and healthy cows (124.98 vs. 40.86, p < 0.001). In conclusion, low values of TRP and KYN concentrations or elevated IDO activity in milk samples might be used as markers of mastitis due to infectious causes, including Prototheca spp.

Keywords: IDO; Prototheca spp.; cows; kynurenine; mastitis; tryptophan.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
TRP, KYN, and KYNA concentrations in milk (A) and serum (B) of cows with Prototheca mastitis and control animals. The median and standard deviation are represented as squares and vertical lines, respectively.
Figure 2
Figure 2
IDO activity in milk (A) and serum (B) of cows with Prototheca mastitis and control animals. Numbers above the bars are median values, while vertical lines represent standard deviation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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