Severe thermal injury induces a pathophysiological response that affects most of the organs within the body; liver, heart, lung, skeletal muscle among others, with
inflammation and hyper-metabolism as a hallmark of the post-
burn damage. Oxidative stress has been implicated as a key component in development of inflammatory and metabolic responses induced by
burn. The goal of the current study was to evaluate several critical mitochondrial functions in a mouse model of severe
burn injury. Mitochondrial bioenergetics, measured by Extracellular Flux Analyzer, showed a time dependent, post-
burn decrease in basal respiration and
ATP-turnover but enhanced maximal respiratory capacity in mitochondria isolated from the liver and lung of animals subjected to
burn injury. Moreover, we detected a tissue-specific degree of DNA damage, particularly of the
mitochondrial DNA, with the most profound effect detected in lungs and hearts of mice subjected to
burn injury. Increased mitochondrial biogenesis in lung tissue in response to
burn injury was also observed.
Burn injury also induced time dependent increases in oxidative stress (measured by amount of
malondialdehyde) and neutrophil infiltration (measured by
myeloperoxidase activity), particularly in lung and heart. Tissue mononuclear cell infiltration was also confirmed by immunohistochemistry. The amount of
poly(ADP-ribose)
polymers decreased in the liver, but increased in the heart in later time points after
burn. All of these biochemical changes were also associated with histological alterations in all three organs studied. Finally, we detected a significant increase in
mitochondrial DNA fragments circulating in the blood immediately post-
burn. There was no evidence of systemic
bacteremia, or the presence of
bacterial DNA fragments at any time after
burn injury. The majority of the measured parameters demonstrated a sustained elevation even at 20-40 days post injury suggesting a long-lasting effect of thermal injury on organ function. The current data show that there are marked time-dependent and tissue-specific alterations in mitochondrial function induced by thermal injury, and suggest that mitochondria-specific damage is one of the earliest responses to
burn injury. Mitochondria may be potential therapeutic targets in the future
experimental therapy of
burns.