Burn Injury (1-7d)

Animal experiments were performed with male Sprague-Dawley rats (Charles River Laboratories, Boston, MA) weighing 150 ? 200 grams. All experimental protocols used in this study were approved by the Subcommittee on Research Animal Care, Massachusetts General Hospital. Rats were individually housed in a temperature-controlled (25oC) and light-controlled room (12h light-dark cycle) and allowed to adjust to their new surroundings for at least 5 days prior to the experiment. Water and rat chow were provided ad libitum to the animals. On the day of the treatment, the animals were randomly divided into two groups, burned and sham-burned. The burn injury consisted of a full-skin-thickness scald burn of the dorsum, calculated to be ~ 20% of the rat?s total body surface area (TBSA), induced by immersing the designated area in boiling water for 10 s (45). Rats were resuscitated with an intra-peritoneal injection of sterile saline solution (1.5 mL/Kg body weight/% TBSA) immediately after burn. The mortality rate of this treatment was negligible. At each time point (1, 2, 4, and 7d), three animals belonging to each group were sacrificed, the liver and serum collected, and stored at ?80oC after being inflicted with 20% TBSA burn injury. Sham-burn rats (n=3) considered as the control were treated identically except that they were immersed into a 37oC water bath and immediately sacrificed to collect the livers. Keywords = Burn Liver microarray genechip time course Keywords: time-course