Cholesterol concentrations in lipoprotein fractions separated by anion-exchange-high-performance liquid chromatography in healthy dogs and dogs with hypercholesterolemia.

Anion-exchange (AEX)-high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for measurement of cholesterol can be used to separate serum lipoproteins (high-density lipoprotein (HDL); low-density lipoprotein (LDL); intermediate-density lipoprotein (IDL); very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL)) in humans. However, AEX-HPLC has not been applied in veterinary practice. We had three objectives: (i) the validation of AEX-HPLC methods including the correlation of serum cholesterol concentration in lipoprotein fraction measured by AEX-HPLC and gel permeation-HPLC (GP-HPLC) in healthy dogs and those with hypercholesterolemia was investigated; (ii) the reference intervals of lipoprotein fractions measured by AEX-HPLC from healthy dogs (n=40) was established; (iii) lipoprotein fractions from the serum of healthy dogs (n=12) and dogs with hypercholesterolemia (n=23) were compared. Analytic reproducibility and precision of AEX-HPLC were acceptable. Positive correlation between serum concentrations of total cholesterol (Total-Chol), HDL cholesterol (HDL-Chol), LDL cholesterol (LDL-Chol)+IDL cholesterol (IDL-Chol), and VLDL cholesterol (VLDL-Chol) was noted for AEX-HPLC and GP-HPLC in healthy dogs and dogs with hypercholesterolemia. Reference intervals measured by AEX-HPLC for serum concentrations of Total-Chol, HDL-Chol, and LDL-Chol were determined to be 2.97-9.32, 2.79-6.57, 0.16-3.28mmol/L (2.5-97.5% interval), respectively. Furthermore, there was significant difference in lipoprotein profiles between healthy and dogs with hypercholesterolemia. These results suggest that AEX-HPLC can be used to evaluate lipoprotein profiles in dogs and could be a new useful indicator of hyperlipidemia in dogs.

Age-specific plasma biochemistry reference ranges in <1 year old dogs in Japan.

The purpose of this study was to investigate and propose possible reference intervals of plasma biochemical analytes in young dogs (<12 months old) in Japan, using 896 canine plasma samples, collected from an array of veterinary clinics throughout the greater Tokyo metropolis area in Japan. The following biochemical parameters were assessed: albumin (ALB), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), amylase, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (CRE), glucose, lipase, total cholesterol (T-Cho), and total protein (TP) were evaluated. Multivariate linear regression analysis indicated that partitioning according to age or gender may be necessary for some plasma analytes. Age appeared to significantly affect ALB, ALT, ALP, BUN, Glucose, Lipase, and Total Protein (P= <0.001, <0.001, <0.001, 0.013, <0.001, 0.025, and <0.001, respectively). On the other hand, gender significantly influenced ALP, Amylase, Lipase, and T-Cho levels (P=0.017, <0.001, <0.001, and <0.001, respectively) whereas it may be borderline significant with ALT (P=0.072).