Metabolomic Responses to Burn Injury in a Rodent Model

Abstract

Management of total body surface area (TBSA) burn injuries remains clinically challenging and is an understudied area. In order to explore the role of supplementary nutrient interventions and supportive tissue building component administration in the clinic to improve wound healing and patient survivability, we assessed metabolomic of a rodent model for burn injury of 30% TBSA. Nine mice were subjected to a 30% TBSA by submersion in 100 °C water. Mice sera or skin biopsies (4 mm) were taken on euthanasia at hour 2, 6, and 24 after injury (n=3 at each time point). An equal number of mice underwent sham procedures and biopsy collection for each time point with similar administration of anesthetic and fluid resuscitation. Samples were analyzed by ultra‐performance liquid chromatography‐quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (UPLCQ‐TOF‐MS). Multivariate analysis, the principal components analysis (PCA), was calculated using stats and pathway analysis using metaboanalyst R packages to analyze metabolic changes. Large changes in metabolite presence were detected in sham treated animals in both specimen types relative to baseline. These changes are caused by animal preparation steps and anesthesia were characterized by comparative analysis of results of specimens from thermally challenged animals relative to either baseline or to sham of the same time point across the study to identify burn associated changes. Metabolite responses in serum were more rapid than changes in skin, and while burn caused larger changes during early time points (1 and 2 hours post injury) in positively charged metabolites relative to negatively charged ones in serum samples, and to a lesser degree in sham treated skin samples, no difference was seen in burned skin samples. Pathway enrichment analysis of metabolites common to all time points from skin identified glycerophospholipid, ascorbate and aldarate, and phenylalanine metabolism pathways as the top three affected pathways. In serum, arachidoinc acid, starch and sucrose, and galactose metabolism were the top three pathways. These results underscore the differences in the kinetics and specimen‐dependent nature of metabolome responses.Support or Funding InformationNoneThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.