[Utilization of cortisol and corticosterone by the tissue in thermal burns]

Clinico-experimental studies were made of the level of cortizol and corticosterone in the tissue fluid of burn vesicles and the blood plasma flowing from the burned and intact body areas; the character and the extent of entrance into the tissues and utilization by them of these hormones was assessed. Along with the increase in the blood cortizol and corticosterone concentrations, and, particularly, in the exudate of the burn vesicles the burned humans and rabbits displayed a different dynamics of the changes in the hormone level in the biological media under study. In the patients and the experimental animals cortizol content in the burn exudate was several times greater than corticosterone concentration. Cortizol level in the edema fluid directly correlated with the degree of edema. It appeared that the burned tissues had a different capacity to the uptake and utilization of cortizol and corticosterone. Features of similarity and differences were noted in the dynamics of the hormonal shifts in the sick and experimental animals. In difference from the intact animals, in the burned rabbits the corticosterone type of the adrenal secretion changed to preponderantly cortizol one.