Level of cortisol in placental tissue vis-à-vis oxidative stress in dystocia affected buffaloes

The study was planned to evaluate the oxidative stress vis-¨¤-vis inflammation in placental tissue and umbilical cord of normally calved and dystocia affected buffaloes. MDA and total protein were estimated in the placental tissue and umbilical cord of all the animals, whereas cortisol was estimated in the placenta and blood plasma of normally calved and dystocia affected buffaloes. The levels of total protein in placental tissue and umbilical cord were significantly higher in normally calved (15.61¡À1.43 mg/ml and 14.42¡À1.58 mg/ml) as compared to the buffaloes suffering from fetal dystocia (2.87¡À1.04 mg/ml and 6.81¡À1.08 mg/ml) and uterine torsion (3.57¡À0.85 mg/ml and 4.66¡À0.47 mg/ml), respectively. On the contrary, the levels of MDA and cortisol were low in the placenta of normally calved buffaloes (0.17¡À0.02 ¦Ìmoles MDA/mg protein ml-1 and 43.8¡À3.2 ng/ml) than in buffaloes with fetal dystocia (4.0¡À1.18 ¦Ìmoles MDA/mg protein ml-1 and 49.2¡À1.2 ng/ml) torsion affected ones (2.63¡À0.87 ¦Ìmoles MDA/mg protein ml-1 and 49.3¡À1.3 ng/ml), respectively. Significant difference in cortisol level was observed in blood plasma of normally calved (39.3¡À2.0 ng/ml), fetal dystociac (64.3¡À10.1 ng/ml) and torsion affected buffaloes (46.2¡À4.5 ng/ml). Thus it appears that increase in levels of MDA and cortisol in tissue and blood plasma following dystocia and uterine torsion were indicative of stress and may lead to severe postpartum uterine inflammation.