A Targeted Serum Metabolomics GC-MS Approach Identifies Predictive Blood Biomarkers for Retained Placenta in Holstein Dairy Cows

Abstract

The retained placenta is a common pathology of dairy cows. It is associated with a significant drop in the dry matter intake, milk yield, and increased susceptibility of dairy cows to metritis, mastitis, and displaced abomasum. The objective of this study was to identify metabolic alterations that precede and are associated with the disease occurrence. Blood samples were collected from 100 dairy cows at −8 and −4 weeks prior to parturition and on the day of retained placenta, and only 16 healthy cows and 6 cows affected by retained placenta were selected to measure serum polar metabolites by a targeted gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) metabolomics approach. A total of 27 metabolites were identified and quantified in the serum. There were 10, 18, and 17 metabolites identified as being significantly altered during the three time periods studied. However, only nine metabolites were identified as being shared among the three time periods including five amino acids (Asp, Glu, Ser, Thr, and Tyr), one sugar (myo-inositol), phosphoric acid, and urea. The identified metabolites can be used as predictive biomarkers for the risk of retained placenta in dairy cows and might help explain the metabolic processes that occur prior to the incidence of the disease and throw light on the pathomechanisms of the disease.

Multi-Channel Metabolomics Analysis Identifies Novel Metabolite Biomarkers for the Early Detection of Fatty Liver Disease in Dairy Cows

“…Metabolic disorders of dairy cattle, such as fatty liver disease and ketosis, in the transition period, remain as prevalent now as they did 20 years ago [ 5 ]. Nowadays, metabolomics approaches are boomingly applied for the identification of metabolite panels in circulating and/or terminal metabolites in dairy cows that can differentiate metabolic disorder cows from healthy cows, including ketosis, retained placenta, metritis, lameness, mastitis, or displaced abomasums [ 9 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 29 ]. This study used non-targeted metabolomics and identified several predictive and diagnostic biomarker panels of fatty liver disease.…”

“…Metabolomics is defined as a comprehensive and fully quantitative analysis of all detectable metabolites (especially for small molecular weight molecules) within a particular biological sample to indicate an overview of metabolic status, which can provide new insight into the pathological mechanisms in diseases. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and MS techniques are the most commonly applied analytical platforms for metabolomics studies [ 17 , 18 , 29 , 30 ]. In comparison with NMR spectroscopy, the major advantage of MS is the higher selectivity and sensitivity, as MS can measure analytics routinely in the femtomolar to the attomolar range.…”

Potential prognostic markers of retained placenta in dairy cows identified by plasma metabolomics coupled with clinical laboratory indicators

“… 2021 ; Zhang et al. 2021 ). The physiological and pathological processes of placental maturation and separation can also be dynamically monitored at the metabolomic level.…”

Differences of serum glucose and lipid metabolism and immune parameters and blood metabolomics regarding the transition cows in the antepartum and postpartum period

“…Thus, providing information is helpful to treat and prevent metabolic diseases of dairy cows in transition period. This method is widely used in the treatment of subclinical mastitis, placenta retention, and ketosis in cows (10)(11)(12)(13). Previous studies have assessed the dynamic changes in biological amines, acylcarnitines, glycerophospholipids, and sphingolipids, based on targeted metabolomics.…”