BACKGROUND

The study was performed to observe the systemic release and kinetics of high mobility group box-1 protein (HMGB1) in burned patients.

METHODS

106 patients were included, and they were divided into three groups with different burn sizes: group I, group II and group III. Healthy volunteers served as normal controls (n=25). The peripheral blood samples were collected on postburn days (PBD) 1, 3, 7, 14, and 21. The blood samples were used to detect levels of HMGB1 in plasma by ELISA kits for human. Gene expression of HMGB1 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells was assessed by real-time quantitative PCR taking GAPDH as the internal standard.

RESULTS

The levels of HMGB1 were significantly elevated on PBD 1-21 in patients with various burn sizes compared with normal controls, and there were obvious differences between group I and group III. The HMGB1 levels were significantly higher in septic patients than those without sepsis on PBD 7-21. Among septic patients, the HMGB1 levels in the survival group were markedly lower than those with fatal outcome on PBD 3-21.

CONCLUSIONS

Extensive burn injury could result in significantly increased HMGB1 levels, which appears to be associated with the development of sepsis and fatal outcome of major burns.