Oxygen therapy enhances the systemic inflammatory response in a human model of experimental inflammation

Oxygen therapy does not benefit normoxemic patients with suspected myocardial infarction and may instead enhance the inflammatory response triggered by the tissue necrosis caused by the myocardial infarction. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that oxygen therapy aggravates systemic inflammation in normoxemic healthy individuals in a human model of experimental inflammation.

Proteomic and gene expression data from healthy subjects vaccinated against Salmonella Typhii and exposed to oxygen therapy or ambient air were investigated. A multi-omics approach with factor analysis to identify common sources of variation in the systemic inflammatory response associated with oxygen exposure was used.

Oxygen therapy showed a statistically nominal tendency toward aggravation determined by ELISA (IL-6) and proximity extension assay (IL-8). The factor analysis revealed a pro-inflammatory feature that included increases in (CXCL 6, 10 and 11) with decreased small nucleolar RNA.

The results indicate that oxygen therapy enhances experimental systemic inflammation. The mechanism is not clear but future studies should address small nucleolar RNA.