Inflammation and Response to Bacterial Infection as Potential Drivers of
Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis: A Proteomics
Insight
Abstract
Background Equine dental diseases significantly impact on a horse’s
overall health, performance, and quality of life. They can result in
secondary infections and digestive disturbances, potentially leading to
colic. A recently described disease affecting the incisors of horses is
equine odontoclastic tooth resorption and hypercementosis (EOTRH).
Understanding EOTRH is crucial for early diagnosis, effective
management, and prevention of its severe consequences.
Objectives To determine proteomic differences in incisor
cementum in horses with and without clinical EOTRH. Study
Design Comparative and observational clinical study. Methods
Teeth were extracted and cementum was isolated using a diamond wire.
Proteins were extracted using an optimised sequential workflow, and
trypsin digested for mass spectrometry. Protein identification and
label-free quantification was undertaken. Results In total 1149
unique proteins were detected in cementum across all samples. We
identified four proteins exclusively in EOTRH affected cementum. EOTRH
samples showed a higher heterogeneity than healthy samples. In total 54
proteins were increased in EOTRH, and 64 proteins were reduced (adjusted
p-value < 0.05). Inflammatory proteins, such as cathepsin G (p
= 0.004), neutrophil elastase (p = 0.003), bactericidal
permeability-increasing protein (p = 0.002), azurocidin (p = 0.003) and
lactotransferrin (p = 0.002) were all increased in EOTRH. Pathway
analysis revealed that antimicrobial peptides (Z score 2.65, p =
1.93E-09) and neutrophil degranulation (Z-score 1.89, p = 1.7E-04) were
commonly up-regulated canonical pathways. Main limitations The
sample size was limited. Conclusion EOTRH leads to biochemical
changes within the cementum proteome, which are important in explaining
the physiological changes occurring in disease. Differentially abundant
proteins may represent promising biomarkers for earlier disease
detection and establishment of a cell-based model could provide further
insight into the role these proteins play in hypercementosis.