Journal List > J Vet Sci > v.20(5) > 1148333

Hong, Oh, Kim, and Seo: Salivary alpha-amylase as a stress biomarker in diseased dogs

Abstract

Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) is a stress biomarker in human diseases, but there are no reports of sAA measurements in diseased dogs. This study measured the sAA and serum alpha-amylase (AA) levels in 16 healthy dogs and 31 diseased dogs using a kinetic enzyme assay to assess the stress status. The sAA and serum AA levels were significantly higher in the diseased dogs than in healthy dogs (p < 0.05), but there was no correlation between the 2 groups (r = 0.251, p = 0.089). This suggests that sAA can be useful as a stress biomarker in diseased dogs.

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Fig. 1.
Relationship between the sAA and serum AA in all dogs. No correlation was observed between the alpha-amylase activities of the serum and saliva according to Spearman correlation analysis (r = 0.251, p = 0.089). sAA, salivary alpha-amylase; AA, alpha-amylase.
jvs-20-e46f1.tif
Table 1.
Alpha-amylase activity (U/L) in the saliva and serum samples from healthy and diseased dogs analyzed using an enzyme kit
Samples Healthy dogs Diseased dogs p value
Saliva 37.25 (15.40–52.68) 72.71 (57.15–122.06) < 0.05
Serum 725.995 (501.79–870.92) 942.97 (776.34–1,121.14) < 0.05

Significant differences were expressed as p values by comparing the group of healthy dogs with that of diseased dogs using the Mann-Whitney U test.

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