2016 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program

Limitations of this study include the small number of dogs, the lack of intestinal biopsies to rule out any other causes of increased gastrointestinal protein loss, the lack of multiple fecal samples to account for day to day variability in fa 1 -PI concentrations reported earlier, the variety of cardiac diseases, and lack of complete serum chemistry profiles for all dogs. However, this study shows that fa 1 -PI concentrations may be increased in a subset of dogs with cardiac disease. Prospective studies are needed to establish if increased fa 1 -PI concentrations in dogs occur consistently with congenital heart diseases, are increased in dogs with acquired heart diseases that increase interstitial pressure, and if elevations have any influence on treatment or prognosis. Clinical use of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy may be optimized through pre-conditioning methods that would enhance their immunomodulatory functions. We investigated the effects of pre-conditioning strategies on cytokine production of female canine adipose-derived MSC that may optimize clinical effects of MSC application in this species. Adipose-derived MSC were generated from healthy adult female dogs and subjected to 6 conditions. Supernatants were harvested after 1, 6, 12, 18, and 24 hours, and levels of cytokines present in the supernatants were determined by ELISA. IL-10 and TGFb were not released in measurable levels within a 24 hour period under any of the tested culture conditions. Large amounts of MCP-1 (mean=10.2 ng/mL) and VEGF (mean=2.9 ng/mL) and very small amounts of IL-8 (mean=40.9 pg/mL) were constitutively produced by the cells at 24 hours. All of the pre-conditioning strategies except TGFb altered measured cytokine production in the MSC from control levels at 24 hours: poly I:C increased IL-8 and MCP-1 secretion; IFNc increased MCP-1 and decreased VEGF and IL-8 secretion;