Background: Pyometra or cystic endometrial hyperplasia complex in dogs is a hormonally mediated bacterial disease wherein middle-aged bitches are most affected. The current study was carried out in pyometra-affected bitches to determine the alterations in hormonal, histopathological and haemato-biochemical profiles after 14 days of ovariohysterectomy. Methods: Blood samples were collected both from control (n=15) and affected bitches (n=15) showing signs of open cervix pyometra preoperatively and postoperatively on the day of surgery, on the 7th and 14th day after ovariohysterectomy. Blood samples were subjected to the estimation of endocrinological and hematobiochemical parameters. The ovary, oviduct and uterus were collected for gross and histological observations. Result: The pre-operative serum progesterone (ng/ml) recorded in bitches affected with pyometra were 9-fold higher than controls (9.77±2.64 vs 0.61±0.66) (P less than 0.01). There was a non-significant difference in the pre-operative (414.63±62.88) and post-operative (390.6±54.20) estrogen concentration and the results indicated a presence of an extragonadal source of estrogen. The enormous endometrial lumen of these cysts contained eosinophilic hazy granular material and tissue debris along with massive infiltration of inflammatory cells, predominantly neutrophils. The findings of the study revealed that progesterone is the major contributory factor and extragonadal sources of estrogen may be present along with hyperplastic changes in the uterine and glandular epithelium in pyometra-affected bitches.

Background The Apelinergic system (consisting of two ligands - APELIN/APELA and its receptor APJ) plays a crucial role in many important biological processes in animals. The human Apelin, Apela and its receptor APJ are well characterized in terms of structure and function, but very little is known about the two ligands and its receptor in bovines and caprine species. The genes related to the Apelinergic system and their roles in various metabolic processes are also understudied in terms of livestock such as bovine and caprine species. Therefore, the aims of the present were to a) model the 3-D structure of the Apelinergic system and b) identify and prioritize the candidate genes regulating the system in bovine and caprine species through state of art bioinformatics tools. A three-dimensional model (3D) was constructed using SWISS-Model, a homology modeling server. The predicted model was validated by SAVES including PROCHECK and ERRAT server. The structures were refined by Refold server of intfold homology modeling tool. Python molecular viewer (PyMol) was used to visualize the tertiary structure of the protein. Three gene prioritizing tools Genie, toppgenet, David, and Genemania to further visualize the network of genes were used.Results The overall quality factor for the remodeled 3D structure for the three best templates selected for both bovine and caprine species was found to be 97.95, 97.82 and 96.40%. We identified and prioritized the top 10 most important genes related to each of the ligands (Apelin/apela and their receptor APJ) and the top 20 neighboring genes for both bovine and caprine species. The top 10 most common genes that interacted with the Apelinergic system in bovines and caprines are FLT1, ADIPOR1, ADIPOR2, ADIPOQ, INS, LEP, KDR, AKT1, TGFB1, NOS3, EGFR1, IGFR1, VEGFA, EGFR, FGF2, MAPK1/3, PPARG, PPARD, and APLNR.Conclusion The models generated in the present study can be used as a foundation for future drug-designing strategies and experiments. The result of the study may be a guiding point for further investigations on the role of the Apelinergic system in various physiological processes in bovines and caprine species.

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