Objective: To study the action of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) in the course of secondary hepatic injury in rats in the early stage after multiple injury.
Methods: Adult male Wistar rats were used and rat model was produced by adopting severe thoracic impact injury in accompany with mono femur fracture. Changes of the content of HSP 70 in the hepatic tissue, hepatic function markers in serum were dynamically observed as well as 24 hours mortal rate after severe multiple injury, trauma with glucocorticoid receptor(GR) blocked. The expression of HSP70 in hepatic tissue was assayed by western blot and then analyzed with computer imaging system.
Results: The content of HSP70 gradually increased in hepatic tissue after severe trauma, increased to the highest at 8 hours after trauma, and maintained rather high level at 24 hours after trauma. But the alterations of hepatic function markers in serum were not obvious after trauma. After usage of GR blocking agent, The content of HSP70 was much higher than simple trauma group. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and total bilirubin (TB) in serum obviously increased in early stage after trauma (both P<0.01), albumin content obviously decreased(P<0.01), while 24 hours mortal rate obviously increased (P<0.01).
Conclusion: HSP70 may participate in starting a anti-injury mechanism of hepatic tissue cell. But excessive expression of HSP70 may cause injury to liver after severe multiple injury. HSP70 can be identified as an important marker of liver injury and anti-injury after severe multiple injury.