Intra-alveolar IL-6 levels following burn and inhalation injury

Burn combined with inhalation injury is a major challenge and requires further study. Using a small-animal model, excretion of IL-6 was investigated during the first 6 h after exposure of rats to wood/polyvinyl chloride smoke, with and without concomitant skin burn. In controls, respirator therapy alone was found to release IL-6 into the serum and the alveolar space. These levels of IL-6 were reduced when associated with either inhalation injury or burn, but were increased when the traumas were combined. Thus, during the first 6 h of mechanical respiration the presence of burn or of inhalation injury seems to decrease IL-6 excretion, but a combination of these traumas reverses this effect.