A PRELIMINARY EXPLORATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TUMOR-NECROSIS-FACTOR (TNF) AND MONOCYTIC IN-VITRO PRODUCTION OF INTERLEUKIN-1 (IL-1)AND INTERNAL ORGAN DYSFUNCTION IN SEVERELY BURNED PATIENTS

Biological assays were adopted in this study to examine the changes in serum tumour necrosis factor (TNF) activity and blood monocytic in vi tro production of interleukin 1 (IL-1) in 24 severely burned patients. The myocardial and hepatic enzymes (which included aspartate aminotra nsferase (AST), creatine kinase (CPK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), al pha hydroxybutyric dehydrogenase (alpha-HBDH) and alanine amino-transf erase (ALT) and some indices of biochemical metabolism (including lact ic acid (LA), total protein (TP), albumin (Alb) and colloid osmotic pr essure (COP)) were simultaneously measured. The results shouted an evi dent increase in serum TNF activity and a decrease in in vitro product ion of IL-1 postburn; all the changes in TNF and IL-1 ware correlated significantly with those of myocardial and hepatic enzymes in MOF pati ents. Furthermore, there were marked fever hypoproteinaemia, tissue is chaemic and hypoxic symptoms such as hyperlacticaemia, and signs refle cting tissue hypercatabolic states. These all suggested that TNF and I L-1 might play important roles in the development of MOF.