Serum Amino Acids (Glutamine, Glutamate, Methionine, and Arginine) Flux after Cutaneous Thermal and Smoke Inhalation injuries in rats.

Smoke inhalation injury remains a major co-morbid complication in burn patients. The mortality rate of patients with burns and smoke inhalation injury is reported to be much higher than that of patients with either injury alone. Patients with this combined injury need a more intensive and aggressive nutrition supply to help them survive. The present study, using rats, was designed to test amino acid flux in cases of combined injury (smoke inhalation injury and cutaneous burns). The purpose was to understand the amino acid flux after this combined injury. We tested four different amino acids, i.e. glutamate, glutamine, arginine, and methionine, and hypothesized that different amino acids would be affected differently. Our preliminary results showed that smoke inhalation injury alone did not cause a significant change in amino acid flux during the first five days after injury, but only some increase in arginine three days after injury. In the cutaneous burn and smoke inhalation injury group, all four amino acids decreased immediately and significantly. This result suggests that these four essential amino acids are all conditionally essential amino acids in this combined injury. However, in the simple smoke inhalation injury group, the amino acid supply was not as important, at least in the first five days after injury.