Recent Research into Laminitis

Laminitis is a major disease of horses because of the associated pain and debilitating nature that make it a life-threatening condition. A complete understanding of laminitis and its complex pathophysiologic processes remains elusive despite substantial efforts and recent advances by many scientists over the last few decades. For this reason, preventative and therapeutic management strategies remain largely empirical and anecdotal with little information from evidence-based medicine. Laminitis may occur as a consequence of three broad categories of disorders: systemic disease, hormonal disturbances, or trauma. Laminitis research has been confounded by apparently disparate results and theories on pathogenesis. However, recent research has shown that many of these differences may in fact represent different stages of the disease, or different original underlying causes. Recent inflammatory, vascular, and enzymatic research in acute inflammatory or gastrointestinal illness has shown links between these mechanisms, and advances in techniques and early time-course studies have helped elucidate such links. A major trend in recent research on laminitis in the past few years has been the increasing interest in metabolic/endocrine events resulting in laminitis, and interestingly, despite the lack of systemic or gastrointestinal clinical illness in these animals, the laminitis may also involve many of the same mechanisms as those occurring in acute laminitis. This article will review recent research into the pathophysiology of laminitis as well as preventive strategies.