Intra-alveolar IL-6 levels following burn and inhalation injury.

Burn combined with inhalation injury is a major challenge and requires further study. Using a small-animal model, excretion of IL-6 was investigated during the first 6h after exposure of rats to wood/polyvinyl chloride smoke, with and without concomitant skin burn. In controls, respirator therapy alone was found to release IL-6 into the serum and the alveolar space. These levels of IL-6 were reduced when associated with either inhalation injury or burn, but were increased when the traumas were combined. Thus, during the first 6h of mechanical respiration the presence of burn or of inhalation injury seems to decrease IL-6 excretion, but a combination of these traumas reverses this effect.