Comparison of storage stability of serum hepatobiliary enzyme activities in murrah buffaloes

Abstract

P.D. Divya, K.K. Jayavardhanan

The present study was designed and conducted to find out the appropriate physical baseline values for hepatobiliary enzymes such as, Alanine aminotransferase(ALT), Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and Gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT) in adult healthy Murrah buffaloes of hot humid climatic condition and also to assess the ideal storage condition for buffalo sera samples meant for the assay of hepatobiliary enzymes by storing at room temperature (22 to 27 ºC), 4 ºC and -20 ºC up to 14 days. The normal mean serum activities of ALT, AST, ALP and GGT were 50.0 ± 3.53, 130.0 ± 7.29, 323.6 ± 32.09 and 10.11 ± 1.28 IU/L with 95% confidence interval of 42.02 to 57.98, 113.51 to 146.49, 251.0 to 396.19 and 7.15 to 13.07 IU/L, respectively. Alanine aminotransferase and Gamma glutamyltransferase were found to be sufficiently stable up to the study period of 14 days at both 4 ºC and -20 ºC whereas unstable at room temperature. Aspartate aminotransferase was more stable at 4 ºC up to 11 days and 8 days at room temperature and was stable only 2 days at -20 0C. Alkaline phosphatase showed great variation upon storage as compared to other hepatobiliary enzymes and it is suggested that its estimation should be performed in fresh serum samples to get a more accurate result. Thus the present study reveals specific reference values for each serum hepatobiliary enzymes in buffaloes of hot humid tropics. From these results it is also advisable to consider stability of each serum hepatobiliary enzymes for different animals separately before preserving sera samples to get a more valid and reliable result.