Examining How Hormones Affect Disease Severity in Sick Foals

Sepsis/septicemia is a disease involving bacteria or their toxins in the bloodstream and tissues, it is the main cause of mortality in newborn foals. The clinical signs and consequences of sepsis include multiple organ failure and loss of the hormonal mechanisms that regulate cardiovascular, metabolic and immune functions. Researchers will investigate multiple steroid hormones from the adrenal gland (stress gland) and determine their role in severity of disease and mortality in sick newborn foals. They will also investigate how adrenal steroids and neurosteroids (steroids produced in the brain) affect stress hormones from the hypothalamus and pituitary gland in sick foals. A better understanding of how these hormonal mechanisms respond to disease in equine neonates will enhance scientists' ability to develop better diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.