Biochemical parameters, dynamic tensiometry and circulating nucleic acids for cattle blood analysis: a review

PeerJ. 2020 May 22:8:e8997. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8997. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

The animal's blood is the most complicated and important biological liquid for veterinary medicine. In addition to standard methods that are always in use, recent technologies such as dynamic tensiometry (DT) of blood serum and PCR analysis of particular markers are in progress. The standard and modern biochemical tests are commonly used for general screening and, finally, complete diagnosis of animal health. Interpretation of major biochemical parameters is similar across animal species, but there are a few peculiarities in each case, especially well-known for cattle. The following directions are discussed here: hematological indicators; "total protein" and its fractions; some enzymes; major low-molecular metabolites (glucose, lipids, bilirubin, etc.); cations and anions. As example, the numerous correlations between DT data and biochemical parameters of cattle serum have been obtained and discussed. Changes in the cell-free nucleic acids (cfDNA) circulating in the blood have been studied and analyzed in a variety of conditions; for example, pregnancy, infectious and chronic diseases, and cancer. CfDNA can easily be detected using standard molecular biological techniques like DNA amplification and next-generation sequencing. The application of digital PCR even allows exact quantification of copy number variations which are for example important in prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal aberrations.

Keywords: Biochemical parameters; Blood; Circulating nucleic acids; Tensiometry.

Grants and funding

Part 1 of this work was supported by the Federal State Assignment (registration number AAAA-A18-118021590136-7), topic number 0445-2019-0023 and Part 2 of this work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 18-016-00207). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.