Increased levels of circulating interleukin-8 in patients with large burns: relation to burn size and sepsis

Large burns are followed by significant trauma-induced immunomodulation, and activated neutrophils can be demonstrated in the circulation of burn patients shortly after injury. Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is a recently described molecule with neutrophil activating properties and in the present study we have measured the concentration of this cytokine in plasma from 27 patients with large burns during hospitalization using an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The mean patient plasma concentration of IL-8 at admission was about 60 times higher than that of healthy controls. Furthermore, patients with total body surface area burn of more than 40% had significantly higher IL-8 concentrations in plasma than patients with smaller burns. For patients without serious infectious complications, the IL-8 concentration fell gradually after injury, whereas in patients with complicating sepsis a second peak of IL-8 was demonstrated. Thus, the increased IL-8 concentrations seem to be related to burn size and to have a role in the pathophysiology of sepsis in patients with large burns. The large amounts of circulating IL-8 following thermal injury may contribute to the strong and sustained activation of neutrophils reported earlier in patients with large burns.