First insights into serum metabolomics of trenbolone/estradiol implanted bovines; screening model to predict hormone-treated and control animals’ status

Abstract The use of anabolic agents in livestock production is a subject of much concern. Although prohibited for more than 20 years within the EU, growth promoting practices are still widely suspected. To meet the current challenges for detecting illicit practices, ‘omics’ strategies have recently been demonstrated as important new investigative tools. These investigations, based on the observation of physiological disturbances, mainly in urine, demonstrated the possibility to monitor biomarkers enabling high throughput determination of animal status in terms of hormonal treatment. In this context, serum was investigated for the first time as an alternative and potential complementary sample type. A metabolomic approach based on liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry, was exploited in order to, highlight metabolic perturbations in serum of Revalor-XS® (trenbolone acetate/estradiol) implanted bovines. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses were carried out to establish descriptive and predictive models. These models enabled the discrimination of anabolised from control animals, and highlighted a number of metabolites which contributed the most in the observed discrimination. Further, a screening model combining a set of selected markers intensities was generated and it successfuly classified animals according to their status, up to 4 weeks post Revalor-XS® implant. This research indicates, for the first ...
Source: Metabolomics - Category: Biology Source Type: research