161 Local Immune Response in Burn Patients (PBW 3-4). As compared to healthy skin, a decrease was found for IL-1 family members IL-1α, IL-33 and IL-18. This is opposed to the level of IL-1b, which is also an IL-1 cytokine. The levels of IL-1α, IL-33 and IL-18 somewhat normalized at PBW 4 to the levels found in healthy skin. Chemokines MCP-1 (CCL2), IL-8 (CXCL8), GROα (CXCL1), MIP-1α (CCL3), MIP-1β (CCL4), RANTES (CCL5) and IP-10 (CXCL10) in burn tissue were increased at all analyzed time intervals, while the levels of T cell attracting chemokines CTACK (CCL27) and MIP-3α (CCL20) were decreased at PBW 1-4 and PBW 4, respectively. Among the growth factors, an increase in VEGF-A and TGF-β1 levels was found at PBW 1-4. From the growth factors, the level of GM-CSF was increased found at PBW 1-3, PDGF-AA at PBW 2-4 and PDGF-AB/BB and TGF-β2 only at PBW 3. Figure 6. Expression of cytokines, chemokines and growth factors in burn tissue. (A) Volcano plot visualization of the expression of soluble factors in burn tissue from 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks post burn injury. Dots represent soluble factors in burn tissue as Log2 fold change as found in healthy skin controls. Factors with a statistically significantly different expression (p < 0.05) are labeled (values above the black striped line). (B) Heatmap visualization of fold increase/decrease of soluble factors in burn tissue compared to healthy skin, categorized by cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. P values were calculated using Mann-Whitney U statistical test. DISCUSSION Next to being a protective, physical barrier, the skin carries out immune surveillance to ensure early and effective defense mechanisms against external threats. Besides fibroblasts and keratinocytes, healthy skin is inhabited mainly by lymphocytes and antigen presenting cells that survey the skin and react to foreign structures and danger 5
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw