Protein profile of buffaloes of different ages

ABSTRACT

Background: In Brazil, the official buffalo herd has about three million animals, distributed over many states of the country. Many times, abnormalities found in proteinogram are not related to illness conditions, but with physiological organic and individuals conditions, that are relatively constant. The interpretation of biochemical constituents depends on the disponibility of knowledge of the variation that exists among different species of animals. Factors like age, stage of development, breed, hormones, pregnancy, nutrition, stress and loss of fluid are directly related to changes in proteinogram. Proteinogram is an important auxiliary exam, helpfull to clinical biochemistry, and represents one of the most reliable methods for identification of blood proteins. The aim of this research was to evaluate the proteinogram of buffaloes of different ages reared in extensive system in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. Materials, Methods & Results: Forty-five buffaloes were separated into three groups group 1 (n = 15), six-months old animals; group 2 (n = 16), twelve-month old animals and group 3 (n = 14), twenty-four months old animals. The total serum protein were determined by the biuret method, using commercial reagent Labtest® and the analysis were realized in semi-automatic spectrophotometer BioPlus-Bio-2000®, according to fabricant instructions. The fractionation of serum proteins were determined by electrophoresis on cellulose acetate strips celugell Labex®. The samples were layered on the strip and, after the closing of the horizontal plane, it was applied a constant voltage of 220 volts for 15 min. Significant differences were verified among groups in the following protein fractions total serum protein, betaglobulin, gammaglobulin and albuminglobulin ratio. In correlation tests, there was a positive correlation between total proteins and gamaglobulins, albuminglobulin ratio and albumin and negative correlation between the albuminglobulin ratio and gamaglobulins. Discussion: With age, there is a significant increase in total serum protein, as can be seen in our work. Thus, it is possible to justify the increase in total serum proteins with the increase of gamaglobulins. In a study realized, who evaluated pregnant sheeps, observed that the total serum protein concentration diminishes with the proximity of the parturition, indicating the importance in evaluating the total serum proteins in different moments of life in different species. With age, the total serum protein tend to increase, resulting in decrease in albumin, with progressive increase in globulins. However, in this study, it was not noticed any significant statistic difference in albumin among the groups. Proteins that compose the alfaglobulin, are acute phase proteins and their concentrations increase rapidly in response to antigenic and traumatic stimuli in bovine. However, in our study, no statistic difference was observed. The proteins that compose the betaglobulin fraction are lipoprotein, transferrin, ferritin, hemopexin, complement C3, protein C-reative, complement C4, plasminogen and fibrinogen. Some authors observed a decrease in fraction beta at the end of gestation in sheeps, other did not observed any variation in this fraction in neonatal bovine. The proteins that compose the gamaglobulin fraction are immunoglobulins IgG, IgA, IgE and IgM. In general, due to the age, there is an increase in gamaglobulin concentration, because of a higher exposure of organism to pathogens including bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. Similar data were observed in this study. The results indicate that there are some variations according to the analyzed age. Then, some abnormalities found in the protein profile may be due to physiological variations.(AU)