The overall objective of the proposed studies is to define the mechanism by which the pulmonary consequences following burn injury are exacerbated by ethanol exposure. Nearly 100,000 people each year are admitted to hospitals due to burn injury and about half of those patients are reported to have been drinking ethanol. Ethanol exposure is not only a risk factor for the events that lead up to the fire-related accidents, but also leads to increased morbidity and mortality among burned patients. The lung is a critical organ, which is particularly sensitive to remote injury. This is, in part, because of the organ's extensive vascular bed and delicate alveolar architecture. Acute lung injury results from the overproduction of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which are generated both systemically and locally (in the lung) in response to injury, such as burn, and is amplified if alcohol is present at the time of injury. We hypothesize that the complications which arise in ethanol-exposed individuals who sustain burn injury are triggered by an overexuberant pulmonary inflammatory response. Herein, we propose to employ both in vivo and in vitro approaches to determine the mechanism(s) responsible for the increased magnitude and duration of pulmonary pathology in burn patients with or without prior ethanol consumption, which are paralleled in our well established murine model of acute ethanol exposure and burn injury. Additionally, we plan to define the roles of key pro-inflammatory and fibrogenic cytokines produced locally and systemically during the early and later post-burn period. We will examine the cellular sources of these factors to determine the extent to which the alveolar macrophage dictates the outcome by virtue of its cytokine production capacity. Finally, we plan to exploit our earlier observation that both systemic and organ-specific inflammatory responses seen after ethanol and burn injury can be ameliorated following systemic treatment with anti-inflammatory regimens, including 17?-estradiol. In the proposed studies, we will test whether this treatment will reduce the pulmonary inflammation seen in mice given the combined insult of ethanol exposure followed by burn injury, relative to either insult alone. It is anticipated that these studies will provide valuable information, which can be used to develop more efficacious therapies for the treatment of ethanol-exposed, burn patients.

Public Health Relevance

In the United States, injury remains the primary cause of death during the first four decades of life, outnumbering all other causes of death, including heart disease and cancer, and accounts for millions of disabling injuries per year and an annual cost of over $130 billion. The importance of ethanol as a complicating factor regarding injury is underscored by the finding that up to 50% of burn patients have detectable levels of ethanol in their circulation at the time of admission to the hospital. These patients, the majority of whom are not chronic alcoholics, but rather consumed alcohol on an acute or binge basis, suffer from increased morbidity and mortality compared with that of non-alcohol-consuming subjects with similar injuries.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AA012034-13
Application #
8298643
Study Section
Surgery, Anesthesiology and Trauma Study Section (SAT)
Program Officer
Jung, Kathy
Project Start
1999-08-01
Project End
2014-06-30
Budget Start
2012-07-01
Budget End
2014-06-30
Support Year
13
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$411,997
Indirect Cost
$134,558
Name
Loyola University Chicago
Department
Surgery
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
791277940
City
Maywood
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
60153
Afshar, Majid; Burnham, Ellen L; Joyce, Cara et al. (2018) Optimal Cut-Points for Phosphatidylethanol Vary by Clinical Setting: Response to Nguyen and Seth's (2018) Letter to the Editor. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 42:2064-2065
Chen, Michael M; Carter, Stewart R; Curtis, Brenda J et al. (2017) Alcohol Modulation of the Postburn Hepatic Response. J Burn Care Res 38:e144-e157
Cannon, Abigail R; Morris, Niya L; Hammer, Adam M et al. (2016) Alcohol and inflammatory responses: Highlights of the 2015 Alcohol and Immunology Research Interest Group (AIRIG) meeting. Alcohol 54:73-7
Chen, Michael M; O'Halloran, Eileen B; Shults, Jill A et al. (2016) Kupffer Cell p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Signaling Drives Postburn Hepatic Damage and Pulmonary Inflammation When Alcohol Intoxication Precedes Burn Injury. Crit Care Med 44:e973-9
Plackett, Timothy P; Deburghraeve, Cory R; Palmer, Jessica L et al. (2016) Effects of Estrogen on Bacterial Clearance and Neutrophil Response After Combined Burn Injury and Wound Infection. J Burn Care Res 37:328-33
Yeligar, Samantha M; Chen, Michael M; Kovacs, Elizabeth J et al. (2016) Alcohol and lung injury and immunity. Alcohol 55:51-59
Afshar, Majid; Poole, Jill A; Cao, Guichan et al. (2016) Exhaled Nitric Oxide Levels Among Adults With Excessive Alcohol Consumption. Chest 150:196-209
O'Halloran, Eileen Bock; Curtis, Brenda J; Afshar, Majid et al. (2016) Alveolar macrophage inflammatory mediator expression is elevated in the setting of alcohol use disorders. Alcohol 50:43-50
Curtis, Brenda J; Shults, Jill A; Ramirez, Luis et al. (2016) Remote Burn Injury Increases Pulmonary Histone Deacetylase 1 and Reduces Histone Acetylation. J Burn Care Res 37:321-7
Shults, Jill A; Curtis, Brenda J; Boe, Devin M et al. (2016) Ethanol intoxication prolongs post-burn pulmonary inflammation: role of alveolar macrophages. J Leukoc Biol 100:1037-1045

Showing the most recent 10 out of 93 publications