Korean Journal of Veterinary Research  2015;55(4):247-252

doi:10.14405/kjvr.2015.55.4.247

A novel biomarker of exercise-induced stress in horses.

Seungwoo LEE 1 ; Dayoung OH ; Myung Chul KIM ; Yongbaek KIM ; Doug Young RYU

Affiliations

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Keywords

biomarker; exercise; fos; horse; stress

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

Exercise is one of the most common stressors in horses. Although various physiological parameters such as cortisol respond to exercise, there is no reliable parameter for the measurement of exercise-induced stress in sport horses. This study was performed to discover a new biomarker with high sensitivity for exercise-induced stress. The expression of fos mRNA was increased more than 10-fold in horse blood samples collected after an hour of exercise, as compared with before the exercise. The plasma cortisol levels were also increased after the exercise, but only by about two-fold. The fos mRNA levels were well-correlated with plasma cortisol concentrations. These findings suggest that fos mRNA expression in blood may be useful for the measurement of exercise-induced stress in horses.