[Mechanism of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase in postburn acute pulmonary injury in scalded rats].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the role of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signal transduction pathway in the production of the proinflammatory factors such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) and interleukin 1beta (IL-1beta) in lungs and in the pulmonary endothelial cell injury in severely scalded rats.


METHODS
Forty eight adult healthy SD rats were randomly divided into three groups with 16 rats in each group, i.e. sham, burn and burn with SB203580 treatment groups. The changes in the TNF-alpha and IL-1beta contents in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), the von Willebrand factor (vWF) contents in plasma and pulmonary microvessels and pulmonary activating protein (AP-1) activity were determined at 24 postburn hours (PBH).


RESULTS
Compared with those in sham group, the TNF-alpha and IL-1beta contents in serum and BALF and the vWF content in plasma (194.2% +/- 28.3% vs 93.2% +/- 14.3%) at 24 PBH in burn group increased significantly (P < 0.01), whereas vWF content in pulmonary microvessel decreased obviously (1.1 +/- 0.3 vs 3.3 +/- 0.4, P < 0.01). In addition, the pulmonary AP-1 activity also increased at 24 PBH. Nevertheless, all the above indices improved obviously in burn with SB203580 (inhibitor of p38 MAPK signal transduction pathway) treatment group when compared with those in burn group.


CONCLUSIONS
AP-1 might mediate the production of proinflammatory factors, such as TNF-alpha and IL-1beta in lungs leading to pulmonary vascular endothelial injury, after being activated by activated p38 MAPK.
Chen
Xu-lin
XL
Department of Burns, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, P.R. China.
Xia
Zhao-fan
ZF
Wei
Duo
D
Ben
Dao-feng
DF
Wang
Guang-qing
GQ
Tang
Hong-tai
HT
D055371:Acute Lung Injury / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D002056:Burns / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D053583:Interleukin-1beta / Q000378:metabolism; D008168:Lung / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism; D048051:p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*
D053583:Interleukin-1beta; D016328:NF-kappa B; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D048051:p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases