Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Desmitis (DSLD) negatively impacts connective tissues in equines, which often leads to progressive chronic lameness. DSLD has been shown to be a systemic disorder that affects multiple body systems, including tendons, sclerae, and the aorta, which if damaged severely enough can result in death. Currently, the diagnosis is based on post mortem biopsy of tendon to confirm the condition. Histology reveals inappropriate accumulations of proteoglycans in the tendons and other tissues that are only found to be increased in horses affected by DSLD. Unfortunately, there is no reliable strategy to diagnose DSLD in living horses. Recent data from next generation sequencing indicates that DSLD affected horses significantly overexpress Keratin 39, 81, 83, c-FOS, and BMP2 genes in skin RNA when compared with controls. We hypothesize that we could use these keratins, c-FOS, and BMP2 together as biomarkers to develop a new diagnostic assay that can be used to diagnose DSLD in living horses. These keratins are often found in skin and hair follicles, and appear to be significantly elevated in cases of DSLD, particularly around the hair sheaths and in sebaceous glands. Our immunohistochemistry data shows a marked increase in keratin and BMP2 expression in hair follicles and sebaceous glands of DSLD horses compared to controls, as well as hyperkeratosis in some DSLD cases at the epidermis. RNAscope has confirmed the increase in keratin in hair follicles in cases of DSLD as well. Based on our data, we conclude that Keratin 39, 81, 83, and BMP2 together can serve as biomarkers for DSLD and can be used to test more horses to ascertain that these keratins and BMP2 can be utilized in an in vivo assay to evaluate horses in which DSLD is suspect.
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