Ryan A Ferris DVM, MS, DACT, Brittany A. Palmer, Patrick M McCue DVM, PhD, DACT Equine Reproduction Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Exogenous progesterone is commonly administered to support a pregnancy in a mare that has endogenous progesterone levels of 1 or in a hormonally manipulated embryo transfer recipient mare2. The goal of this study was to determine the pharmacokinetics of a short-acting and long-acting compounded progesterone product.
Anestrus mares were administered an intramuscular injection of either 200 mg of short-acting progesterone (n=3) (progesterone in cottonseed oil, 100 mg/mL, Doc Lane Pharmacy Formula, Lexington KY) or 1500 mg of long-acting progesterone (n=3) (progesterone in sesame oil, 150 mg/mL, Doc Lane Pharmacy Formula, Lexington KY). Blood plasma was collected just prior to (Time 0) and selected intervals after administration of both products. Plasma progesterone concentration was determined using a validated ELFA assay (MiniVIDAS®; bioMérieux)3. Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation. The short-acting progesterone group’s mean blood progesterone concentration was 7.7 ± 1.0 ng/ml at 2 hours and 4.7 ± 0.4 ng/ml at 24 hours after administration (Figure 1). The long-acting progesterone treatment had a mean blood progesterone value of 11.3 ± 0.4 ng/ml at 24 hours and 5.6 ± 0.3 ng/ml 7 days post administration (Figure 1). After 14 days of administration the mean blood progesterone value was 0.9 ± 0.1 ng/ml.
In summary, the Doc Lane Short-acting progesterone product maintained blood values above 4 ng/mL for 24 hours and was effectively cleared by 72 hours after administration. In contrast, the Doc Lane Long-acting progesterone product maintained blood values above 4 ng/ml for 7 days, but remained above 1 ng/ml for approximately 14 days following administration.
References:
- McCuePM.HormoneTherapyinClinicalEquinePractice.VetClinofNAmerica:EqPract.2016;32:425-434.
- Ferris RA and McCue PM. How To Overcome Challenges in An Embryo Transfer Program. Proceedings AAEP 2017San Antonio.
- Glapa KE, Ferris RA, Palmer BD, McCue PM. Comparison Of Blood Progesterone Values Obtained From An In-House One Hour Enzyme Linked Fluorescent (ELFA) With Radioimmunoassay (RIA). Clinical Theriogenology. 2017;9:457.