“…As observed by ANNANE & CAVAILLON (2003), glucorticoids raise the survival of human patients with severe sepsis, and the association of this information to ALJADA et al (2001) results, in which the administration of hydrocortisone reduces MMP-2 and -9 activities, make it possible to believe that its use as laminitis preventive medication in horses might be important, once the several alterations triggered by sepsis are observed in laminitis induction, specially the release of inflammatory mediators. LASKOSKI et al (2009) observed severe morphological alterations hoof laminar tissue of horses that died due to lethal colic, and the severity of the hoof laminar alterations was associated with the animal general medical condition, mainly leukopenia that probably indicates tissue leukocytes infiltration. FALEIROS et al (2008) described in horses submitted to experimental intestinal obstruction the presence of neutrophils in lung tissue besides hoof laminar tissue alterations, which indicates the occurrence of a systemic inflammatory response .…”