Exploring the Gut-Liver Axis Following Combined Radiation Exposure and Burn Injury in a Sinclair Minipig Model

While radiation and burn injury have distinct local and systemic effects, they both negatively impact intestinal permeability/function. In a nuclear attack, combined thermal burns and radiation exposure (e.g., combined injury (CI)) would be a dominant injury pattern. Despite this, how burns affect gastrointestinal acute radiation syndrome, and vice versa, has been largely unstudied. Next generation sequencing has revealed a strong bidirectional link between the liver and gut. Here, we used a porcine model to evaluate the impact of burn, radiation, and CI on the gut microbiota and liver transcriptomics to determine if this link exists in these injury patterns. Sinclair minipigs were randomly divided into three groups: burn (n=8), hemibody radiation (n=7), and CI (n=8).