BACKGROUND
Trauma/hemorrhagic shock is one of the major consequences of battlefield injury as well as civilian trauma. FTY720 (sphingosine-1 phosphate agonist) has the capability to decrease the activity of the innate and adaptive immune systems and, at the same time, maintain endothelial cell barrier function and vascular homeostasis during stress. For this reason, we hypothesize that FTY720, as part of resuscitation therapy, would limit T/HS induced multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) in a rodent trauma-hemorrhagic shock (T/HS) model.
METHODS
Rats subjected to trauma/sham-shock (T/SS) or T/HS (30 mm Hg × 90 min), were administered FTY720 (1 mg/kg) post-T/HS during volume resuscitation. Lung injury (permeability to Evans Blue dye), PMN priming (respiratory burst activity), and RBC rigidity were measured. In addition, lymph duct cannulated rats were used to quantify the effect of FTY720 on gut injury (permeability and morphology) and the biologic activity of T/HS vs. T/SS lymph on PMN-RB and RBC deformability.
RESULTS
T/HS-induced increased lung permeability, PMN priming and RBC rigidity were all abrogated by FTY720. The systemic protective effect of FTY720 was only partially at the gut level, since FTY720 did not prevent T/HS-induced gut injury (morphology or permeability,) however, it did abrogate T/HS lymph-induced increased respiratory burst and RBC rigidity.
CONCLUSION
FTY720 limited T/HS-induced MODS (lung injury, red cell injury, and neutrophil priming) as well as T/HS lymph bioactivity, although it did not limit gut injury.