Shahabi Shahram, Hashemi Mahmud, Hassan Zuhair Muhammad, Javan Mohammad, Bathaie Seiedeh Zahra, Toraihi Taki, Zakeri Zahra, Ilkhanizadeh Behrouz, Jazani Nima Hosseini
Department of Immunology, School of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran.
Int J Hyperthermia. 2006 Aug;22(5):421-31. doi: 10.1080/02656730600841857.
This paper studied the effect of post-burn local hyperthermia on burn induced injury.
A second-degree burn injury was induced on the right and left flanks of Balb/c mice. Thirty-two burn wounds were divided into four groups. Opioid receptor blocking was done for groups 3 and 4 by intra-peritoneal administration of Naloxone (NLX) 30 min before the thermal injury. Local hyperthermia (45 degrees C, 30 s) was applied only for the burn wounds of groups 2 and 4. Twenty-four hours after burn injury, the burned wounds were assessed for the level of iNOS (by immunohistochemistry) and the number of hair follicles (as an indicator of tissue injury).
The wounds that received hyperthermia (group 2) had significantly more hair follicles (p < 0.001) compared to the control wounds (group 1). There was no significant difference between the number of hair follicles and acute inflammation of group 1 and group 3 (NLX + burn). Group 4 (NLX + burn + hyperthermia) had significantly fewer hair follicles compared to group 1 (p < 0.001), group 2 (p < 0.001) and group 3 (p < 0.001). The level of iNOS in groups 1, 3 and 4 was not significantly different but significantly more than group 2 (p < 0.001, p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively).
The results showed that local hyperthermia after second degree burn decreased the tissue injury and iNOS expression. It is also concluded that endogenous opioid response may have a key role in the above mentioned effects of post-burn local hyperthermia.
