The roles of autophagy and apoptosis in burn wound progression in rats

• Published in: Burns Vol. 39; no. 8; pp. 1551 - 1556
• Main Authors: Tan, Jia-Qi, Zhang, Hong-Hui, Lei, Zhan-Jun, Ren, Pan, Deng, Chen, Li, Xue-Yong, Chen, Shao-Zong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2013
• Subjects: Animals; Apoptosis - physiology; Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins - metabolism; Autophagy; Autophagy - physiology; Beclin-1; Biomarkers - metabolism; Blotting, Western; Burns; Burns - metabolism; Burns - pathology; Cell death; Critical Care; Disease Models, Animal; Disease Progression; Immunohistochemistry; Male; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 - metabolism; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Zone of stasis; Burns; Cell death; Zone of stasis; Autophagy
• ISSN: 0305-4179; 1879-1409; 1879-1409
• DOI: 10.1016/j.burns.2013.04.018

Understanding the role of cell death in burn wound progression is crucial for giving appropriate diagnoses and designing therapy regimens for burn patients. A well-described and reliable “comb burns model” was employed to evaluate the roles of autophagy and apoptosis in burn wound progression at 2h, 6h, 12h, 24h, and 48h post-burn in a rat model. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) results showed that autophagy was detectable in hair follicle epithelium at 2h post-burn, peaked at 12h post-burn, then declined. Conversely, apoptosis was mainly located in the stratum epidermis and took place at low levels until 6h post-burn, at which point it slowly increased. Bcl-2 and Bax, which are regulators of both processes, showed protein expression level patterns that were consistent with the IHC results. This study of autophagy in burn wound tissue progression represents a conceptual expansion of cell death in burn wounds. Based on these results, we suggest that different treatments should be performed on a specific post-burn time course depending on the most prevalent type of cell death occurring at that time.