Serum metabolomics identifies metabolite panels that differentiate lame dairy cows from healthy ones

Introduction: Although much is known about lameness application of metabolomics technologies to better understanding its etiology and pathogenesis is of utmost interest. Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate serum metabolite alterations in pre-lame, lame and post-lame dairy cows in order to identify potential screening serum metabolite biomarkers for lameness and better understand its pathobiology. Methods: A combination of direct injection and tandem mass spectrometry (DI–MS/MS) with a reverse-phase liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) analysis was performed in the serum of six cases of lameness and 20 healthy control cows (CON) at − 8 and − 4 weeks prepartum, at lameness diagnosis week, and at + 4 and + 8 weeks postpartum. Results: Data indicated that pre-lame, lame, and post-lame cows experienced altered concentrations of multiple metabolites. It is interesting to note that throughout the 16-weeks of the study, 7 serum metabolites [e.g., diacyl-phosphatidylcholine (PC aa) C30:0, phosphatidylcholine acyl-alkyl (PC ae) C40:2, sphingomyelin (SM) (OH) C14:1, SM C18:0, isoleucine (Ile), leucine (Leu), and lysine (Lys)] differentiated CON cows from the lame ones. Furthermore, 4 metabolic pathways (i.e., Lys degradation, biotin metabolism, tryptophan (Trp) metabolism, and valine [(Val)-Leu-Ile degradation) were altered in cows with lameness during the onset and progression of the disease. Conclusion: Multiple metabolite and pathway alterations were identified in the serum of pre-lame, lame, and post-lame cows that through light into the pathobiology of the disease and that can be used as potential biomarker sets that can predict the risk of lameness in dairy cows.