European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

THE EFFECT OF OVINE PREGNANCY TOXEMIA ON ACID BASE BALANCE, OXIDATIVE STRESS, SOME HORMONAL ASSAYS AND MATRIX METALLOPROTEINASES

*Asmaa Abdallah Ragb Darwish

ABSTRACT

Background: Ovine pregnancy toxemia (PT) is a serious metabolic disorder, widely affects the late pregnant ewes form all species, resulting in high stillbirth and mortality rates. Objective: this research aimed to study the effect of the PT and the late pregnancy on the acid base balance, anion gap, oxidant-antioxidant status, some hormonal assays and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic value of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in PT and their relations with the other estimated parameters. Material and method: sixty barki ewes aged from 3-4 years, were divided equally into 3 groups: the healthy control group, late pregnant group and pregnant toxemic group. Blood samples were collected from the three groups and different biochemical parameters were measured. Results: both of toxemic ewes and late pregnant ewes suffered from a significant drop in the blood pH, PCO2, HCO3, minerals, electrolytes, antioxidants, FT3, FT4 and insulin levels. On contrast, they had increased blood levels of PO2, base deficit, K, anion gap, free radicals, cortisol, GH, TSH and MMPs. Furthermore, both of MMP-2 and MMP-9 yielded 100% sensitivity as well as NPV and close values of specificity, LR, PPV, accuracy rate and percentage of increase in the toxemic ewes when compared to the late pregnant ewes. Conclusion: the monitoring of the acid base balance, anion gap, oxidant-antioxidant status and hormonal assays in the late pregnant ewes as well as the toxemic ewes is important to reduce the PT morbidities and mortalities respectively. MMP-2 and MMP-9 are valuable tools for the early detection and prediction of PT.

Keywords: Pregnancy toxemia, acid base balance, oxidative stress, hormonal stress, matrix metalloproteinases.