Direct quantification of autologous serum albumin leakage after burn injury in mice

The current technique determining the extent of capillary leakage after injury is to measure the leakage of dye-labeled foreign albumin. A recent report, however, demonstrated that albumin leakage is dependent upon the type of fluorescent dye used for labeling. We chose to develop and test a technique for determining the extent of vascular albumin leakage after burn injury without the use of dyes. Skin and blood samples were harvested at 3 h and 7 days after burn injury in mice. Total skin lysates and extracts as well as sera were analyzed for albumin leakage. Coomassie staining and Western blot analyses of skin preparations followed by the densitometric measurement revealed increased levels of albumin, suggesting that the leakage of serum albumin started within 3 h after burn injury. Instead of employing dye-labeled foreign albumin, the use of SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of tissue extracts followed by Coomassie staining will allow for a simple and direct quantification of autologous albumin leakage due to burn as well as other types of injury.