120 Muscle Homeostasis is Disrupted in Burned Adults

Abstract Introduction Severe burn leads to substantial skeletal muscle wasting associated with adverse outcomes and protracted recovery. Signal pathways that regulate apoptosis, myogenic proliferation and differentiation are incompletely understood and have not been studied in adult burn patients. The purpose of the study is to investigate muscle tissue homeostasis in response to severe burn. Methods Muscle biopsies from the right vastus lateralis muscle were obtained from 10 adult burn patients at the time of their first operation. Patients were grouped by burn size (TBSA 30%) have decreased muscle cell cross sectional area, and increased circulating Caspase3 and Murf1 when compared to patients with small burn. Muscle atrophy after burn is driven by apoptotic activation without an equal response of satellite cell activation, differentiation, and fusion. Applicability of Research to Practice A better understanding of the mechanisms behind the imbalance of muscle cell loss and regrowth may contribute to therapeutic advances to improve the morbidity associated with muscle atrophy after burn.