Background.
Inflammation plays an important part in the healing process. Little is known about the extent local inflammatory
trauma response interacts with the central circulation and
inflammation produced by central organs. The aim of the present study was to examine whether high cut-off microdialysis
catheters offer potential to in real time assess interstitial
cytokines variations in conjunction to markers of metabolism distal to a blunt vascular
contusion. Methods. In a standardised
contusion trauma model, microdialysis
catheters (high MW (100kDa)) were inserted in the gracilis muscle distal to the
trauma for the local assessment of
IL-6,
IL-8,
TNF-alpha, total
protein and the metabolic mediators (
glycerol, puruvate and
lactate). The contra lateral uninjured leg served as control of the centrally mediated
inflammation propagated to the extremities. Results. The
trauma led to a significant and quantitatively large (8-10 fold) increase in inflammatory
cytokines (
IL6 and 8) as measured both in the injured and control legs. There was only a minor, and not significant increase in concentrations of
cytokines in the injured leg compared to the control leg.. There were no signs of
ischemia in either leg. Conclusion. The new finding in this study is that both central, and local, inflammatory responses as well as metabolic mediators may be assessed continuously in skeletal muscle tissue distal to a major injury in an animal model. The findings suggest that the large
trauma elicits a generalised inflammatory response to
trauma rather than propagating a local one distal to the
trauma.