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Updated: Mar 3, 2026
Short-Duration Hypothermia Induction in Rats using Models for Studies examining Clinical Relevance and Mechanisms
Published on: March 3, 2021
Optimization of brain metabolism using metabolic-targeted therapeutic hypothermia can reduce mortality from traumatic
Jin-Zhou Feng1, Wen-Yuan Wang, Jun Zeng
1From the Department of Trauma Surgery (J.F., W.W., J.Z., S.L., H.J.), Department of Computational Mathematics and Biostatistics (W.W., J.Z., Z.Z., J.P., H.Y., C.D.L., H.J.), Metabolomics and Multidisciplinary Laboratory for Trauma Research, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu; North Sichuan Medical College (W.W.), Nanchong, China; Department of Biochemistry (Z.Z.), Southwest Medical University, Luzhou; and Analytical and Testing Center (P.D.), Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Background:
Therapeutic hypothermia is widely used to treat traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). However, determining the best hypothermia therapy strategy remains a challenge. We hypothesized that reducing the metabolic rate, rather than reaching a fixed body temperature, would be an appropriate target because optimizing metabolic conditions especially the brain metabolic environment may enhance neurologic protection. A pilot single-blind randomized controlled trial was designed to test this hypothesis, and a nested metabolomics study was conducted to explore the mechanics thereof.
Methods:
Severe TBI patients (Glasgow Coma Scale score, 3-8) were randomly divided into the metabolic-targeted hypothermia treatment (MTHT) group, 50% to 60% rest metabolic ratio as the hypothermia therapy target, and the body temperature-targeted hypothermia treatment (BTHT) control group, hypothermia therapy target of 32°C to 35°C body temperature. Brain and circulatory metabolic pool blood samples were collected at baseline and on days 1, 3, and 7 during the hypothermia treatment, which were selected randomly from a subgroup of MTHT and BTHT groups. The primary outcome was mortality. Using H nuclear magnetic resonance technology, we tracked and located the disturbances of metabolic networks.
Results:
Eighty-eight severe TBI patients were recruited and analyzed from December 2013 to December 2014, 44 each were assigned in the MTHT and BTHT groups (median age, 42 years; 69.32% men; mean Glasgow Coma Scale score, 6.17 ± 1.02). The mortality was significantly lower in the MTHT than the BTHT group (15.91% vs. 34.09%; p = 0.049). From these, eight cases of MTHT and six cases from BTHT group were enrolled for metabolomics analysis, which showed a significant difference between the brain and circulatory metabolic patterns in MTHT group on day 7 based on the model parameters and scores plots. Finally, metabolites representing potential neuroprotective monitoring parameters for hypothermia treatment were identified through H nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics.
Conclusion:
MTHT can significantly reduce the mortality of severe TBI patients. Metabolomics research showed that this strategy could effectively improve brain metabolism, suggesting that reducing the metabolic rate to 50% to 60% should be set as the hypothermia therapy target.
Level Of Evidence:
Therapeutic study, Level I.
