Objective: To investigate the role and significance of PAF in the early pulmonary injury following burns combined with endotoxemia in rats.
Methods: An animal model, in which rats were subjected to 20% TBSA III degree burns combined with intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), was used for this experiment. The changes in the pulmonary morphology were observed by LM, EM and immunohistochemistry(IHC). The contents of PAF and TNF-alpha in the plasma were determined with quantitative analysis. PAF receptor antagonist(BN50739) was used to treat early pulmonary injury.
Results: PAF was one of the inflammatory mediators to precede TNF changes during burns combined with endotoxemia in the early stage of pulmonary injury. The contents of PAF in the plasma was positively correlated to the extent of pulmonary injury, which may be alleviated after injection of PAF receptor antagonist (BN50739).
Conclusion: The results suggest that PAF plays an very important pathogenic role in the early lung injury resulted from burns combined with endotoxemia.