Open Access
12 December 2012 Analyses of the correlation between dermal and blood carotenoids in female cattle by optical methods
Julia Klein, Maxim E. Darvin M.D., Martina C. Meinke, Florian J. Schweigert, Kerstin E. Müller, Jürgen M. Lademann
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Herd health programs for the maintenance of welfare and productivity in cattle need efficient tools for monitoring the health of individual animals. Recent reports demonstrate that the oxidative status is related to various stress conditions in dairy cows. Biomarkers, among other carotenoids, could serve as indicators of stress originating from the environment (e.g., heat stress or sun radiation) or from the animal itself (e.g., disease). To date, only invasive in vitro tests are available to assess the oxidative status in cattle. The present study compares the results of optical noninvasive in vivo measurements of dermal carotenoids in cattle udder skin using an LED-based miniaturized spectroscopic system (MSS) with those obtained by photometric analysis of beta carotene in whole blood samples using a portable device. Correlations between the concentrations of dermal and blood carotenoids were calculated under consideration of the nutritional status of the animals. Significant correlation (R = 0.86) was found for cattle with a moderate to obese body condition. Thus, the blood and skin concentrations of the marker substance beta carotene are comparable under stable stress conditions of the cattle. This demonstrates that the MSS is suitable for noninvasive assessment of dermal carotenoid concentrations in cattle.
© 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) 0091-3286/2012/$25.00 © 2012 SPIE
Julia Klein, Maxim E. Darvin M.D., Martina C. Meinke, Florian J. Schweigert, Kerstin E. Müller, and Jürgen M. Lademann "Analyses of the correlation between dermal and blood carotenoids in female cattle by optical methods," Journal of Biomedical Optics 18(6), 061219 (12 December 2012). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.18.6.061219
Published: 12 December 2012
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Cited by 8 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Blood

Skin

Plasma

Biological research

Tissue optics

In vivo imaging

Magnesium

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