Investigation of Potential Serum Biomarkers for the Diagnosis of Chronic Back Pain in Horses

Abstract Back pain is one of the most common triggers performance failure in athletic and riding horses. Diagnosis equine back has been very challenging for practitioners, particularly chronic cases. Therefore, identification blood biomarkers would facilitate clinical differentiation pain. This study aimed to investigate serum glial cell activation, axonal damage, inflammation diagnosis Serum samples from forty horses comprising (CBP), concurrent with lameness (BPL), (LN), healthy control (HC) (n=10 per group) were screened ionized calcium-binding adaptor molecule 1 (Iba-1), fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), phosphorylated neurofilament-H (pNF-H) by ELISA, proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α) multiplex assay. concentrations GFAP (3.81±1.72 ng/mL) pNF-H (0.76±0.18 significantly (p<0.05) higher CBP when compared other groups. Iba-1 was not There no significant difference between pro-inflammatory among The levels IL-1β, TNF-α also increased than HC but lower relation BPL LN In addition, Iba-1, GFAP, showed a high discriminatory capacity sensitivity (50-100%) specificity (70-100%). provides evidence that may be useful