对海洋哺乳动物的免疫功能的研究对于了解其生理学至关重要,并且可以帮助改善其在水族馆中的福利。致力于研究海洋哺乳动物生理学,病理生理学,并实施新的诊断和治疗工具,通过促进疾病的早期发现和治疗,促进水族馆预防医学的进展。然而,由于难以获得这些物种及其生物样本,目前对海洋哺乳动物的生物和临床研究非常有限。有了这个目标,我们的研究小组对海洋哺乳动物采用了一种市售的常规检测方法,用于评估人全血样本中单核细胞和粒细胞的吞噬能力。我们将IngoflowEx套件改编为宽吻海豚(Tursiopstruncatus),白鲸(Delphinapterusleucas),海象(Odobenusrosmarus),巴塔哥尼亚海狮(Otariaflavescens),和港口(Phocavitulina)。在本文中,我们报告了对原始方案进行的修改,以确保它们在海洋哺乳动物中的正确功能。在每个物种的各个个体中重复采样4年后,我们获得了每个物种的吞噬能力的生理值。具体结果表明,在宽吻海豚中摄入大肠杆菌的吞噬细胞百分比为59.6±1.27,在海象中为62.6±2.17,在海狮中为57.5±4.3,在白鲸中为61.7±1.4。在宽吻海豚中产生呼吸爆发的吞噬细胞百分比为34.2±3.6,在海象中为36.3±4.3,在海狮中为40.8±10.2,在白鲸中为26.3±3.7。这些初步结果可用作参考,以检测免疫抑制或感染性炎症过程中反应加剧的吞噬能力变化。在两个临床病例中验证了该测定的临床适用性,其中Ingoflow可用于检测两个患病个体的免疫改变。在临床体征出现之前和之后。
The study of the immune function in marine mammals is essential to understand their physiology and can help to improve their welfare in the aquariums. Dedicating efforts to studying marine mammal physiology, pathophysiology, and implementing new diagnostic and therapeutic tools promote progress towards preventive medicine in aquariums by facilitating early detection and treatment of diseases. However, biological and clinical research on marine mammals is currently very limited due to difficult access to these species and their biological samples. With this objective, our group has adapted to marine mammals a commercially available assay routinely used to evaluate the phagocytic capacity of monocytes and granulocytes in human whole blood samples. We adapted IngoflowEx kit to bottlenose
dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas), walruses (Odobenus rosmarus), Patagonian sea lions (Otaria flavescens), and harbor (Phoca vitulina). In this paper, we report the modifications carried out on the original protocol for their correct functioning in marine mammals. We obtained physiological values of phagocytic capacity in each species after repeated sampling for 4 years in various individuals of each species. Specific results revealed that the % phagocytic cells that ingested E.coli in bottlenose
dolphins were 59.6 ± 1.27, in walruses 62.6 ± 2.17, in sea lions 57.5 ± 4.3, and in beluga whales 61.7 ± 1.4. In the case of the % phagocytic cells producing respiratory burst in bottlenose
dolphins were 34.2 ± 3.6, in walruses 36.3 ± 4.3, in sea lions 40.8 ± 10.2, and in beluga whales 26.3 ± 3.7. These preliminary results can be used as a reference to detect alterations in phagocytic capacity either by immunosuppression or by exacerbation of the response in infectious inflammatory processes. Clinical applicability of the assay was verified in two clinical cases in which Ingoflow was useful to detect immune alterations in two diseased individuals, before and after the onset of clinical signs.