Expression and significance of serum corticosterone in rats with different burn degrees / 中国中西医结合急救杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the changes of serum corticosterone and inflammatory factors in rats with different burn degrees. Methods One hundred and fifty male healthy Wistar rats were randomly divided into normal control group, moderate and severe burn hormone treatment groups, and moderate and severe burn physiological saline treatment groups, each group with 30 rats. After anesthesia, the rat models with burn Ⅱ,Ⅲ degrees of 30% back surface area were replicated; the burn, fluid infusion and steroid therapy were not carried out in the normal control group. After modeling, the moderate and severe burn hormone treatment groups were given intra-abdominal cavity injection of hydrocortisone 200 mg/d; while in the moderate and severe burn normal saline treatment groups, normal saline 4 mL·kg-1·d-1 was injected into the abdominal cavity. The dynamic changes of serum corticosterone, tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels were detected at 1, 4, 12 hours and 1, 3 and 7 days after burn injury in each group. Results The levels of serum corticosterone at different time points after moderate and severe burn injury treatment were higher than those in normal control group, the degree of increase at 4 hours after injury in severe burn saline treatment group was more significant than that in moderate and severe burn hormone treatment groups and moderate burn saline treatment group (ng/L 200.45±2.63 vs. 110.56±9.23, 146.02±3.28, 160.02±8.22). Except the level at 1 hour after injury in the moderate and severe burn hormone treatment groups, the TNF-αlevels in all the other groups at different time points were significantly higher than those in the normal control group (all P < 0.05); the IL-6 levels in various treatment groups were all higher than the IL-6 level in the normal control group, moreover, the increase degree on 1 day after injury in the severe burn saline treatment group was more obvious than the degrees in the moderate and severe burn hormone treatment groups and the moderate burn saline treatment group [TNF-α(ng/L) 39.78±4.30 vs. 15.99±1.40, 20.58±2.10, 25.98±1.60, IL-6(ng/L) 210.20±6.70 vs. 125.45±3.10, 149.81±4.20, 161.40±3.80, all P < 0.05]. Conclusion The burn stress may lead to the significant increase of serum corticosterone level in rats, and the stress dose of hydrocortisone has a certain regulatory effect on serum corticosterone and inflammatory factors in rats after different degrees of burn.