ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the preventive effect of lanthanum chloride on enteral bacterial translocation in scalded rats.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Ninety Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were employed in the study and randomly divided into three groups, i.e. normal control (A), burn control (B) and treatment (C) groups. Plasmid PUC19 labelled by JM109 was transfected to Escherichia coli (E. coli), so that restriction endonuclease finger - print image spectrum analysis could be applied to the tracing and quantification of the translocation of E. coli from intestine to mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs) and blood. The intestinal tissue contents of endotoxin (ET), nitric oxide (NO), nitric oxide synthase (NOS), malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were determined.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>It was identified that the bacteria in MLNs and blood exhibited the same gene map with those from gastric gavage in B and C groups. But the bacterial quantity in MLNs in C group on 3 postburn day (PBD) was much lower than that in B group (P < 0.05). The intestinal MDA content in C group on 1 and 3 PBDs was obviously higher than that in B group (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Bacteria (E. coli) could be translocated from gut to MLNs and blood, which could be evidently alleviated by lanthanum chloride by means of its bactericidal property, inhibition of NOS activity, so that NO production decreased, and its ability to increase SOD activity leading to less production of MDA.</p>