Heat Shock Proteins and the Maintenance of Gut Barrier Following Burn Injury

Abstract

Traumatic injury, specifically burn injury, remains a prominent medical problem due to the prevalence of secondary, burn-induced complications of sepsis and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. These complications arise as a result of gut barrier breakdown following injury. As the gut harbors trillions of resident bacteria, any compromise in barrier integrity would allow for bacteria or bacterial products to gain access to extraintestinal sites potentiating systemic infections and inflammation associated with burn injury. Both experimental and human data provide evidence linking heat shock proteins with gut barrier maintenance under various pathological conditions. This article highlights the intestinal pathophysiologies associated with burn injury while proposing a potential cytoprotective role of heat shock proteins of the intestine in the innate immune response to injury.