Preliminary Notes on Equine Tissue Transglutaminase Serology and A Case of Equine Gluten-Sensitive Enteropathy and Dermatitis in an 11-Year-Old Dutch Warmblood Horse

Rick van Proosdij; Chris Mulder; Martine Reijm; Hetty Bontkes; Mary von Blomberg; Han van der Kolk

doi:10.1016/j.jevs.2020.102999

Preliminary Notes on Equine Tissue Transglutaminase Serology and A Case of Equine Gluten-Sensitive Enteropathy and Dermatitis in an 11-Year-Old Dutch Warmblood Horse

J Equine Vet Sci. 2020 Jul:90:102999. doi: 10.1016/j.jevs.2020.102999. Epub 2020 Apr 2.

Authors

Rick van Proosdij¹, Chris Mulder², Martine Reijm³, Hetty Bontkes³, Mary von Blomberg³, Han van der Kolk⁴

Affiliations

¹ De Klomp Dierenartsen, De Klomp, the Netherlands. Electronic address: rick@deklompdierenartsen.nl.
² Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
³ Laboratory of Medical Immunology, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Department of Pathology and Department of Clinical Chemistry, Amsterdam Infection and Immunity Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁴ Euregio Laboratory Services, Maastricht, the Netherlands; Swiss Institute for Equine Medicine (ISME), Vetsuisse Faculty, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, University of Bern and Agroscope, Bern, Switzerland.

PMID: 32534776
DOI: 10.1016/j.jevs.2020.102999

Abstract

It has been suggested that gluten may play a role in equine inflammatory small bowel disease (ISBD). Previous work showed an association between equine gluten-sensitive enteropathy and IgA antibodies to tissue transglutaminase (TGA) in serum. The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence of IgA antibodies to TGA in a group of healthy non-gluten-free sport ponies and to present a case of tentative gluten-sensitive enteropathy and dermatitis in a horse. Blood samples were obtained from 40 healthy jumping ponies. The ponies comprised 12 mares, 8 stallions, and 20 geldings with an average age of 9.0 ± 3.8 years (±SD; range 3-19 years). Sera were tested for IgA antibodies against human recombinant TGA. Significance (P < .05) of the correlation between TGA titer and age in these ponies was assessed using Pearson test (two tailed). In addition, to further illustrate tentative equine gluten-sensitive enteropathy and dermatitis, the clinical course in an 11-year-old Dutch Warmblood sport horse gelding has been described. The average TGA titer was 21.4 ± 13.6 AU/mL (range 2-65 AU/mL). There was a significant (P = .013) correlation (r = 0.389) between age and TGA titer in ponies. One of the 40 ponies (2.5%) showed an elevated TGA titer. An elevated TGA titer decreased after a gluten-free ration for 3 months in an 11-year-old Warmblood gelding with a tentative diagnosis of ISBD associated with full remission of the generalized skin reaction. To our best knowledge, this is the first study assessing TGA antibodies in sera from healthy non-gluten-free ponies and showing a correlation with age. The presented case could be the first one of a horse with a tentative diagnosis of gluten-sensitive enteropathy combined with dermatitis. Given the reported findings, this study warrants further investigations into gluten-sensitive enteropathy and dermatitis in individual horses affected with ISBD.

Keywords: Gluten; ISBD; Inflammatory small bowel disease; TGA; Transglutaminase.

MeSH terms

Animals
Celiac Disease* / diagnosis
Celiac Disease* / veterinary
Dermatitis* / diagnosis
Dermatitis* / veterinary
Female
GTP-Binding Proteins
Horse Diseases* / diagnosis
Horses
Male
Protein Glutamine gamma Glutamyltransferase 2
Transglutaminases

Substances

Protein Glutamine gamma Glutamyltransferase 2
Transglutaminases
GTP-Binding Proteins