Vitamin E attenuates acute lung injury in sheep with burn and smoke inhalation injury.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:

A decrease in alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) plasma levels in burn patients is typically associated with increased mortality. We hypothesized that vitamin E supplementation (alpha-tocopherol) would attenuate acute lung injury induced by burn and smoke inhalation injury.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Under deep anesthesia, sheep (33 +/- 5 kg) were subjected to a flame burn (40% total body surface area, third degree) and inhalation injury (48 breaths of cotton smoke, < 40 degrees C). Half of the injured group received alpha-tocopherol (1000 IU vitamin E) orally, 24 h prior to injury. The sham group was neither injured nor given vitamin E. All three groups (n = 5 per group) were resuscitated with Ringer's lactate solution (4 ml/kg/%burn/24 h), and placed on a ventilator (PEEP = 5 cmH2O; tidal volume = 15 ml/kg) for 48 h.

RESULTS:

Plasma alpha-tocopherol per lipids doubled in the vitamin E treated sheep. Vitamin E treatment prior to injury largely prevented the increase in pulmonary permeability index and moderated the increase in lung lymph flow (52.6 +/- 6.2 ml/min, compared with 27.3 +/- 6.0 ml/min, respectively), increased the PaO2/FiO2 ratio, ameliorated both peak and pause airway pressure increases, and decreased plasma conjugated dienes and nitrotyrosine.

CONCLUSIONS:

Pretreatment with vitamin E ameliorated the acute lung injury caused by burn and smoke inhalation exposure.

• Authors: Naoki Morita, Katsumi Shimoda, Maret G Traber, Martin Westphal, Perenlei Enkhbaatar, Kazunori Murakami, Scott W Leonard, Lillian D Traber, Daniel L Traber
• Journal: Redox report : communications in free radical research (Redox Rep) Vol. 11 Issue 2 Pg. 61-70 ( 2006) ISSN: 1743-2928 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 16686996 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Antioxidants
• Lipids
• 3-nitrotyrosine
• Tyrosine
• gamma-Tocopherol
• alpha-Tocopherol

Topics

• Acute Disease
• Animals
• Antioxidants (pharmacokinetics, therapeutic use)
• Burns (metabolism, physiopathology, prevention & control)
• Disease Models, Animal
• Extravascular Lung Water (drug effects, physiology)
• Lipids (blood)
• Lung (drug effects, physiopathology)
• Lung Injury
• Pulmonary Gas Exchange (drug effects, physiology)
• Pulmonary Wedge Pressure (drug effects, physiology)
• Sheep
• Smoke Inhalation Injury (metabolism, physiopathology, prevention & control)
• Tyrosine (analogs & derivatives, metabolism)
• alpha-Tocopherol (blood, pharmacokinetics, therapeutic use)
• gamma-Tocopherol (blood, pharmacokinetics, therapeutic use)