Brain Death
Conditions
Keywords
brain death, inflammation, endotoxin, transplantation, graft, apoptosis, Systemic inflammatory response, Apoptosis activation, Graft outcome
Brief summary
We hypothesized that brain death is associated with an early systemic inflammatory response, possibly combined with activation of apoptotic cell death, two events that may contribute to induce rapid organ dysfunction. In this study of brain-dead donors and controls, we assayed plasma cytokines and soluble factors, investigated plasma endotoxin levels as a triggering factor for inflammation, measured ex vivo cytokine production by blood leukocytes to determine whether immunosuppression occurred after brain death, and examined skeletal muscle biopsies to look for evidence of inflammation and increased apoptosis in peripheral tissue.
Interventions
Muscle biopsies were taken through the operation site from the vastus lateralis thigh muscle at the beginning of surgery
Sponsors
Eligibility
Inclusion criteria
* All brain dead patients whatever the cause (cardiac arrest, stroke, head trauma)
Exclusion criteria
* Age \< 18years
Countries
Belgium, France