Metabolic impact of weight variations in Icelandic horses

Julien Delarocque; Florian Frers; Korinna Huber; Klaus Jung; Karsten Feige; Tobias Warnken

doi:10.7717/peerj.10764

Metabolic impact of weight variations in Icelandic horses

PeerJ. 2021 Jan 28:9:e10764. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10764. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Julien Delarocque¹, Florian Frers¹, Korinna Huber², Klaus Jung³, Karsten Feige¹, Tobias Warnken¹

Affiliations

¹ Clinic for Horses, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Hannover, Germany.
² Institute of Animal Science, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Universität Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.
³ Institute for Animal Breeding and Genetics, Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover, Hannover, Germany.

Abstract

Background: Insulin dysregulation (ID) is an equine endocrine disorder, which is often accompanied by obesity and various metabolic perturbations. The relationship between weight variations and fluctuations of the insulin response to oral glucose tests (OGT) as well as the metabolic impact of ID have been described previously. The present study seeks to characterize the concomitant metabolic impact of variations in the insulin response and bodyweight during repeated OGTs using a metabolomics approach.

Methods: Nineteen Icelandic horses were subjected to five OGTs over one year and their bodyweight, insulin and metabolic response were monitored. Analysis of metabolite concentrations depending on time (during the OGT), relative bodyweight (rWeight; defined as the bodyweight at one OGT divided by the mean bodyweight across all OGTs) and relative insulin response (rAUC_ins; defined accordingly from the area under the insulin curve during OGT) was performed using linear models. Additionally, the pathways significantly associated with time, rWeight and rAUC_ins were identified by rotation set testing.

Results: The results suggested that weight gain and worsening of ID activate distinct metabolic pathways. The metabolic profile associated with weight gain indicated an increased activation of arginase, while the pathways associated with time and rAUC_ins were consistent with the expected effect of glucose and insulin, respectively. Overall, more metabolites were significantly associated with rWeight than with rAUC_ins.

Keywords: Equine metabolic syndrome; Insulin dysregulation; Metabolomics; Obesity; Oral glucose test; Pathway analysis.

Grants and funding

This publication was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation within the funding programme Open Access Publishing. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.