Deoxyribonuclease Reduces Tissue Injury and Improves Survival After Hemorrhagic Shock

Background: Hemorrhagic shock (HS) caused by rapid loss of a large amount of blood is the leading cause of early death after severe injury. When cells are damaged during HS, many intracellular components including DNA are released into the circulation and function as endogenous damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) that can trigger excessive inflammatory response and subsequently multiple organ dysfunction. We hypothesized that the administration of deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I) could reduce cell-free DNA and attenuate tissue damage in HS. Methods: Eight-week-old male C57BL/6 mice underwent HS by controlled bleeding from the femoral artery for 90 min, followed by resuscitation with Ringer's lactate solution (vehicle) or DNase I (10 mg/kg BW). Results: At 20 h after HS, serum levels of cell-free DNA were increased by 7.6-fold in the vehicle-treated HS mice compared with sham, while DNase I reduced its levels by 47% compared with the vehicle group. Serum levels of tissue injury markers (lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase, and alanine aminotransferase) and proinflammatory cytokine interleukin 6 were significantly reduced in the DNase I–treated mice. In the lungs, messenger RNA levels of proinflammatory cytokines (interleukin 6 and interleukin 1 β), chemoattractant macrophage inflammatory protein - 2, and myeloperoxidase activity were significantly decreased in HS mice after DNase I. Finally, DNase I significantly improved the 10-day survival rate in HS mice. Conclusions: Administration of DNase I attenuates tissue damage and systemic and lung inflammation, leading to improvement of survival in HS mice. Thus, DNase I may potentially serve as an adjunct therapy for managing patients with HS.