Burn-Induced Oxidative Stress and Serum Glutathione Depletion; A Cross Sectional Study

Introduction: several studies have shown the role of oxidative stress in pathophysiology of burn injuries. this study aimed to evaluate the changes of oxidant-antioxidant levels during theweek following burn injuries and its correlation with grade of burn. methods: in this prospective cross-sectional study, changes of total glutathione, reduced glutathione (gsh), oxidized gsh (gssg), gsh/gssg ratio, as well as pro-oxidant-antioxidant balance (pab) were investigated on the 1st, 2nd and 7th days of admission in patients with > 15% burns. results: 40 patients with the mean age of 21.1 ± 14.5 were studied (47.5% male). more than 50% of patients were in the 18 – 55 years age range and over 70% had 20% – 60% grade of burn. total serum glutathione level and gsh had significant decreasing trends (p < 0.001) and gssg and gsh/gssg ratio had increasing trends (p < 0.001). no significant correlation was observed between serum gsh level and the total body surface area (tbsa) of burn injury (r = 0.047; p = 0.779). the evaluation of pab and its correlation with tbsa showed a significant and direct association between them on the 1st (coefficient = 0.516; p = 0.001), 2nd (coefficient = 0.62; p <0.001), and 3rd (coefficient = 0.471; p = 0.002) day of follow up. conclusion: according to this study, the redox perturbation occurred in burn injurywhichwas measured and proved by decreased gsh/gssg ratio aswell as the shift of pab in favour of oxidants. besides, since pab positively correlated with the severity of dermal damage, itmight suggest the application of antioxidants as a part of therapeutic protocol for which the dosage should be proportionate to the surface area of the damaged skin.