Citation

Bartha E, Asmussen S, Olah G, Rehberg SW, Yamamoto Y, Traber DL, Szabo C. Shock 2011; 36(2): 144-148.

Affiliation

Department of Anesthesiology The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Galveston, TX, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, The Shock Society, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/SHK.0b013e318212988c

PMID

21330947

PMCID

PMC3128177

Abstract

The nuclear enzyme poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase (PARP) plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of various forms of critical illness. DNA strand breaks induced by oxidative and nitrative stress trigger the activation of PARP, and PARP, in turn, mediates cell death and promotes pro-inflammatory responses. Until recently, most studies focused on the role of PARP in solid organs such as heart, liver, kidney. Here we investigated the effect of burn and smoke inhalation on the levels of poly(ADP-ribosylated) proteins (PAR) in circulating sheep leukocytes ex vivo. Adult female merino sheep were subjected to burn injury (2×20% each flank, 3 degree) and smoke inhalation injury (insufflated with a total of 48 breaths of cotton smoke) under deep anesthesia. Arterial and venous blood were collected at baseline, immediately after the injury and 1-24 hours after the injury. Leukocytes were isolated with the Histopaque method. The levels of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ated proteins were determined by Western blotting. The amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were quantified by the Oxyblot method. To examine whether PARP activation continues to increasing ex vivo in the leukocytes, blood samples were incubated at room temperature or at 37°C for 3h with or without the PARP inhibitor PJ34. To investigate whether the plasma of burn/smoke animals may trigger PARP activation, burn/smoke plasma was incubated with control leukocytes in vitro. The results show that burn and smoke injury induced a marked PARP activation in circulating leukocytes. The activity was the highest immediately after injury and at 1 hour, and decreased gradually over time. Incubation of whole blood at 37°C for 3 hours significantly increased PAR levels, indicative of the presence of an on-going cell activation process. In conclusion, PARP activity is elevated in leukocytes after burn and smoke inhalation injury and the response parallels the time-course of reactive oxygen species generation in these cells.

Language: en