Pro-inflammatory effect of obesity on rats with burn wounds

Chan Nie; Huiting Yu; Xue Wang; Xiahong Li; Zairong Wei; Xiuquan Shi

doi:10.7717/peerj.10499

Pro-inflammatory effect of obesity on rats with burn wounds

PeerJ. 2020 Dec 8:8:e10499. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10499. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Chan Nie^{1

2}, Huiting Yu¹, Xue Wang¹, Xiahong Li¹, Zairong Wei³, Xiuquan Shi¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, Guizhou, China.
² Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China.
³ Burns & Plastic Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, Guizhou, China.

Abstract

Objective: A burn is an inflammatory injury to the skin or other tissue due to contact with thermal, radioactive, electric, or chemical agents. Burn injury is an important cause of disability and death worldwide. Obesity is a significant public health problem, often causing underlying systemic inflammation. Studying the combined impact of burn injuries on obese patients has become critical to the successful treatment of these patients. The aim of this paper is to highlight the effect of inflammation associated with burn injuries on several body weight group in a rat study.

Materials and methods: Different degrees of obesity and burns were established in rats and divided into a normal weight group, overweight group, obese group, second-degree burn group, third-degree burn group, over-weight second-degree burn group, over-weight third-degree burn group, obese second-degree burn group, and obese third-degree burn group (20 rats per group). Changes in inflammatory factors and growth factor were measured on the 1st, 3rd, 7th and 14th days after burns were inflicted.

Results: The ELISA test showed that in the unburned control group, MCP-1, IL-1β and TNF-α protein expressions in the obese and over-weight groups were higher than the normal-weight group (P < 0.05). RT-PCR test showed that the expressions of MCP-1, IL-1β and TNF-α genes in the obese group were higher compared to the overweight and normal weight groups (P < 0.05). Three and 7 days after burns were inflicted, the level of VEGF in the normal weight group was higher than the obese group (P < 0.05), however increased VEGF was not observed on days 1 and 14.

Conclusion: Burn injury and obesity have a mutually synergistic effect on the body's inflammatory response.

Keywords: Burn; Chemokine; Cytokine; Growth factor; Obesity.

Grants and funding

This study was granted by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant No. 81560534, PI: Xiuquan Shi). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.