| Abstract: | Although endoscopy is the definitive diagnostic method for the detection of colonic
ulcers, the equipment required for performing the test is costly and difficult to use.
Therefore, a simple cost-effective and reliable screening test for intestinal tract
bleeding is needed. To this end, we measured carbonic anhydrase isozymes (CA-I and CA-II)
originating from erythrocytes by ELISA in order to determine if they could be used as
markers of occult blood in feces. For fecal extract preparation, 2 g of feces were mixed
with 4 ml of 0.01 M Tris-HCl (pH 8.0) containing 0.01% thimerosal. The concentrations of
CA-I and CA-II in the fecal samples of 13 clinically normal racehorses were found to be
30.0 ± 10.0 and 34.0 ± 13.0 ng/ml, respectively. Increased concentrations of CA-I were
detected in the fecal samples of 5 horses after blood administration; however, no increase
was observed in CA-II. The concentrations of CA-I and CA-II in the fecal samples of 88
racehorses with clinical signs of equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS) were 115.3 ± 79.0
and 41.0 ± 42.0 ng/ml, respectively. Thus, our results indicate that CA isozymes can be
useful as markers of occult blood in the fecal samples of horses with intestinal tract
bleeding. |
