Jeaneen Kulp

1 Introduction Blood insulin and adiponectin concentrations have been identified as key predictors of lifetime laminitis risk in horses, and as such, the ability to practically and accurately measure insulin and adiponectin concentrations is essential [1-3]. Insulin concentrations are also used as the primary means of confirmatory testing for equine metabolic syndrome (EMS), and adiponectin may be used to support diagnosis and for monitoring long-term response to interventions [4].

BACKGROUND: Eight-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), a biomarker of oxidative damage evaluated in human neurodegenerative disease, has potential to correlate with postmortem diagnosis of neuroaxonal dystrophy/degenerative myeloencephalopathy (NAD/DM) in horses. HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesized that 8-OHdG will be higher in CSF and serum from NAD/DM horses compared with horses with other neurologic diseases (CVSM, EPM) and a control group of neurologically normal horses.

3-NT 3-nitrotyrosine 4HNE 4-hydroxynonenal 8-OHdG 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine CNS central nervous system CSF cerebrospinal fluid DM degenerative myeloencephalopathy NAD neuroaxonal dystrophy F2 isoP F2-isoprostane PBS phosphate-buffered saline ROS reactive oxygen species 1 INTRODUCTION The neurodegenerative disease termed neuroaxonal dystrophy (NAD)/degenerative myeloencephalopathy (DM) has become increasingly recognized as a cause of neurologic disease in horses.