The Fatty Acid-Based Erythrocyte Membrane Lipidome in Dogs with Chronic Enteropathy

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Molecular-based approaches are rapidly developing in medicine for the evaluation of physiological and pathological conditions and for the discovery of new biomarkers in prevention and therapy. Membrane fatty acid-based lipidomic analysis in healthy animals provides a benchmark to study disease conditions and was useful to evidence significant differences in dogs affected by chronic enteropathy. Such molecular information might have the potential to become a useful tool in the assessment of canine chronic enteropathy, being connected with nutritional and metabolic status of the subjects, as well as it may reflect “gut health” and suggest appropriate intervention by “lipid therapy”. ABSTRACT: Canine chronic enteropathies (CEs) are inflammatory processes resulting from complex interplay between the mucosal immune system, intestinal microbiome, and dietary components in susceptible dogs. Fatty acids (FAs) play important roles in the regulation of physiologic and metabolic pathways and their role in inflammation seems to be dual, as they exhibit pro–inflammatory and anti–inflammatory functions. Analysis of red blood cell (RBC) membrane fatty acid profile represents a tool for assessing the quantity and quality of structural and functional molecular components. This study was aimed at comparing the FA membrane profile, determined by Gas Chromatography and relevant lipid parameter of 48 CE dogs compared with 68 healthy dogs. In CE patients, the levels of stearic (p < 0.0001), dihomo–gamma–linolenic, eicosapentaenoic (p = 0.02), and docosahexaenoic (p = 0.02) acids were significantly higher, and those of palmitic (p < 0.0001) and linoleic (p = 0.0006) acids were significantly lower. Non-responder dogs presented higher percentages of vaccenic acid (p = 0.007), compared to those of dogs that responded to diagnostic trials. These results suggest that lipidomic status may reflect the “gut health”, and the non–invasive analysis of RBC membrane might have the potential to become a candidate biomarker in the evaluation of dogs affected by CE.