ABSTRACT
To test the hypothesis that dermal fibroblasts (DF) are an important source of cytokines which elicit major changes in hepatic synthesis of acute phase reactants(APRs). Metkods: Condi-tioned medium(CM) from human DF challenged with bacterial lipopolysaccharide (I,PS) was collected andIL-10 and IL-6 levels were measured- The ability of DF conditioned medium(fLPS) and dexamethasone(Dex) to mediate an hepatic acute phase response was tested on rat hepatoma H4 cells- Various concentra-tions and combinations of CM (?LPS), recombinant IL-6 (rhIL-6) and Dex were tested for their abilitiesto stimulate albumin, Q,-acid glycoprotein (AGP), a,-antitrypsin (AT) and transferrin mRNA synthesis.Results: LPS stimulated IL-6 production by DF and Dex inhibited this producti0n. IL-6 and CM+LPS in-hibited the production of albumin mRNA,while the expression of AT and AGP 0ccurred 0nly with CM+LPS+Dex. However,IL-6 alone had an inhibitory effect 0n albumin and transferrin mRNA producti0n.Dex maximized the effects 0f lL-6 and CM, and was essential f0r AGP gene expression. C0nclusion: (l)LPS-treated human DF can secrete IL-6, but not IL-101 (2)DF may als0 pr0duce other cyt0kines whichmodulate hepatic pr0tein synthesis during the acute phase response l (3) Dex inhibits IL-6 production byDF, but enhances its ability to stimulate the acute phase response.
ABSTRACT
The dynamic changes of immunoreactive dynorphin1-13 (ir-Dyn1-13) contents in 18 burned patients were studied by radioimmunoassay. It was found that ir-Dyn began to increase gradually at the onset of burn and remained at a relatively high levels by the time of preliminary wound healing. Plasma ir-Dyn increased gradually after bum and decreased abruptly before death in one severely burned patient who died of respiratory failure at the third week. The results suggest that Dyn may have a protective effect on the burned patients.