Splanchnic vasoconstriction and bacterial translocation after thermal injury. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Gut barrier failure and bacterial translocation (BT) after thermal injury may result from splanchnic vasoconstriction and intestinal ischemia. The role of the renin-angiotensin system in intestinal blood flow and BT after thermal injury was studied by pretreatment with the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor enalapril in Wistar rats before sham or 30% scald burn. Adequacy of ACE inhibition was documented by the absence of a hypertensive response to angiotensin I, and intestinal blood flow was determined using 51Cr-labeled microspheres. Small bowel blood flow was decreased by 46% at 4-h postburn (P less than 0.05) in untreated burned animals despite maintenance of normal cardiac index but returned to baseline levels by 24 h after injury. Enalapril pretreatment resulted in maintenance of small bowel blood flow after thermal injury and was associated with a significantly reduced incidence of BT (20% vs. 75% in untreated burned animals, P less than 0.01). These findings further implicate intestinal ischemia in the etiology of gut barrier dysfunction after thermal injury, mediated in part by activation of the renin-angiotensin system.

publication date

  • October 1, 1991

Research

keywords

  • Bacterial Physiological Phenomena
  • Burns
  • Splanchnic Circulation
  • Vasoconstriction

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0026076627

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1152/ajpheart.1991.261.4.H1190

PubMed ID

  • 1928402

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 261

issue

  • 4 Pt 2