Summary Exodontia is the typical treatment recommended in severe cases of dental disease where alternative treatment techniques fail to salvage the affected tooth. Exodontias are frequently performed in the standing horse with the benefit of sedation and regional anaesthesia in order to avoid the risks and expense of general anaesthesia. The inferior alveolar nerve block is commonly utilised when extracting diseased mandibular dentition. Because of the close anatomical relationship of the lingual and inferior alveolar nerves both may be desensitised following anaesthesia of the inferior alveolar nerve. Desensitisation of the tongue may result in horses traumatising it during mastication before sensation returns. This report describes 3 horses that sustained self‐inflicted lingual trauma following inferior alveolar nerve blocks performed for standing oral surgical procedures.

A common challenge in cell therapy is the inability to routinely maintain survival and localization of injected therapeutic cells. Delivering cells by direct injection increases the flexibility of clinical applications, but may cause low cell viability and retention rates due to the high shear forces in the needle and mechanical wash out. In this study, we encapsulated endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) in poly(ethylene glycol)-fibrinogen (PF) hydrogel microspheres using a custom-built microfluidic device; this system supports rapid encapsulation of high cell concentrations (10 million cells per mL) and resulting cell-laden microspheres are highly uniform in shape and size. The encapsulated ECFCs were shown to have >95% viability and continued to rapidly proliferate. Expression of cell markers (von Willebrand factor, CD105, and CD14), the ability to form tubules on basement membrane matrix, and the ability to take up low-density lipoprotein were similar between pre- and post-encapsulated cells. Viability of encapsulated ECFCs was maintained after shear through 18-23-gauge needles. Ex vivo and in vivo cell delivery studies were performed by encapsulating and injecting autologous equine ECFCs subcutaneously into distal limb full-thickness wounds of adult horses. Injected ECFCs were visualized by labeling with fluorescent nanodots before encapsulation. One week after injection, confocal microscopy analysis of biopsies of the leading edges of the wounds showed that the encapsulated ECFCs migrated into the surrounding host tissue indicating successful retention and survival of the delivered ECFCs. Rapid, scalable cell encapsulation into PF microspheres was demonstrated to be practical for use in large animal cell therapy and is a clinically relevant method to maintain cell retention and survival after local injection.

Autologous conditioned serum (ACS) and autologous protein solution (APS) are newer therapeutic options for osteoarthritis (OA). Co-culture of cartilage and synovium stimulated with IL-1β produces a similar physiologic response to tissues from naturally-ocurring OA. The study objective was to investigate the effects of ACS, APS, and triamcinolone (TA) on inflammatory and catabolic gene expression of inflamed joint tissues in co-culture. Blood was collected and processed for ACS and APS from six horses. Cartilage and synovial explants were harvested from the stifle, placed in co-culture, and treated as: (1) unstimulated control (2) stimulated control (3) ACS at 25% v/v (4) ACS at 50% v/v (5) APS at 25% v/v (6) APS at 50% v/v, (7) TA (10 −6 M). Treatment groups 2-7 were stimulated with IL-1β (10 ng/ml). Cultures were maintained for 96 hours, and then both media and explants were harvested for measurement of gene expression and protein. IL-1β stimulation significantly increased IL-1β (p = 0.029), IL-8 (p = 0.011) and MMP-3 (p = 0.043) expression in synovium and IL-1β (p = 0.003) and TNF-α (p = 0.001) expression in cartilage. Treatment with 50% ACS and APS v/v downregulated IL-1β expression in cartilage more than TA treatment (p = 0.001 and p = 0.0004) and APS downregulated MMP-1 expression in synovial membrane (p = 0.025). Treatment with ACS and APS caused a trend in upregulation of IL-10 expression in synovium and type II collagen and aggrecan expression in cartilage. PGE 2 media concentrations were significantly reduced following treatment with APS (13.7-fold decrease, p = 0.0001) and ACS (4.13-fold decrease, p = 0.024); while TA did not reduce PGE 2 significantly (2.3-fold decreased p = 0.406). As disease-modifying therapies, ACS and APS modified the cellular response from synovial membrane and articular cartilage. ACS and APS may offer an improved strategy to improve clinical signs of horses with naturally occurring OA, compared to TA treatment.

The barbed knotless suture appears to be a valid alternative to facilitate laparoscopic closure of the nephrosplenic space in normal horses; however, further work is necessary to investigate its suitability in clinically affected horses.

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