Fecal acute phase proteins in cats with chronic enteropathies

Abstract

Background: Chronic enteropathies (CE) are common in cats and reliable biomarkers that can distinguish different causes and predict or monitor response to treatment are currently lacking. Hypothesis: To evaluate certain acute phase proteins in feces that could potentially be used as biomarkers in cats with CE. Animals: Twenty-eight cats with either inflammatory bowel disease (IBD; n = 13), food-responsive enteropathy (FRE; n = 3) or small cell gastrointestinal lymphoma (SCGL; n = 12) and 29 healthy control cats were prospectively enrolled. Methods: Fecal concentrations of haptoglobin, alpha-1-acid-glycoprotein (AGP), pancreatitis-associated protein-1 (PAP-1), ceruloplasmin, and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured using Spatial Proximity Analyte Reagent Capture Luminescence (SPARCL) immunoassays before and after initiation of treatment. Cats were treated with diet and/or prednisolone (IBD cats), plus chlorambucil (SCGL cats). Results: Compared with controls, median fecal AGP concentrations were significantly lower (25.1 vs 1.8 μg/g; P =.003) and median fecal haptoglobin (0.17 vs 0.5 μg/g), PAP-1 (0.04 vs 0.4 μg/g) and ceruloplasmin (0.15 vs 4.2 μg/g) concentrations were significantly higher (P