[Association of oxidative status and semen characteristics with seminal plasma proteins of buffalo semen]

To study the influence of season on oxidative status of buffalo semen and their association with semen characteristics and seminal plasma proteins, ejaculates were collected twice a week in winter, summer and rainy seasons from six adult Bhadawari buffalo bulls. The neat semen was analyzed for semen characteristics immediately after collection and oxidative status viz. lipid peroxidation [LPO], catalase [CAT], super oxide dismutase [SOD] activity, and total protein [TP] were estimated in seminal plasma. The protein profiling was carried out by one-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis [SDS-PAGE]. The significant effect of season was observed on TP, SOD activity and % protein fractions of seminal plasma proteins of buffalo bulls. The TP values showed positive correlation with ejaculate volume [EV], sperm concentration [SC], and % live-dead [LD] and negative correlation with progressive motility [PM], and hypo-osmotic swelling test [HOST]. The SOD activity showed positive correlation with PM, LD, HOST and % acrosoamal integrity [AI]. Besides that, results showed correlation of TP with 6.5, 38 and 66 kDa proteins, LPO with 70, 72, 84 and 86 kDa proteins, CAT with 70 kDa and 86 kDa proteins, and SOD with 6.5, 24.5, 44.5, 70 and 72 kDa proteins. In conclusion, this study indicated that TP and SOD activity of seminal plasma of buffalo bulls were influenced by season and were found to be associated with some of the semen characteristics and expression of seminal plasma proteins

Comparative assessment of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, nitric oxide and echocardiography for diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs

The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide [NT-Pro BNP] and nitric oxide [NO] with echocardiography [gold st and ard test] in diagnosis of canine cardiomyopathy. Out of 374 cases, 82 cases showing cardiovascular abnormalities including 16 cases of cardiomyopathy were further selected for st and ardization of biomarkers. Significant [P<0.01] increase in plasma NT-Pro BNP was found in dogs with cardiomyopathies. The plasma concentration of NO showed non-significant increase in comparison to healthy dogs. The sensitivity of NT-Pro BNP and NO was 72.20% and 62.50%, with specificity 93.90% and 89.40%, respectively when compared with echocardiography. The correlation between echocardiography and NT-Pro BNP was 89.30% with kappa value of 0.675 suggesting substantial agreement between the two tests. The positive and negative predictive value was estimated at 0.765 and 0.925, respectively. It is concluded that NT-Pro BNP and NO may be an alternate diagnostic tool for diagnosis of cardiomyopathy where the facility of echocardiography is not available. Key words: Cardiomyopathy, Echocardiography, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide, Nitric oxide