2015 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program

In a cross-over study design, seven healthy young adult dogs were given either oral cyclosporine at an immunosuppressive dose (10 mg/kg Q12 hours), oral low-dose aspirin (1 mg/kg Q24 hours), oral high-dose aspirin (10 mg/kg Q12 hours), or low-dose aspirin combined with cyclosporine, each for 8 days, with a washout of at least 4 weeks after each cross-over. Blood was drawn prior to and on the last day of drug treatment for flow cytometric analysis. Heparinized whole blood was activated with PMA and ionomycin for evaluation of CD3+ T-cell expression of IL-2 and IFN-c. Percent CD4+/ CD25+/FoxP3+ Tregs was evaluated in freshly drawn EDTAanticoagulated whole blood. The difference between pre-and post-treatment values for each group, as well as the difference between treatment groups, was evaluated. Paired t-tests comparing baseline and post-treatment values within a treatment group for each outcome were performed. Differences between groups were assessed using mixed effects models. P ≤ 0.05 was considered significant.