Clinical prediction of wound re-epithelisation outcomes in non-severe burn injury using the plasma lipidome

Whilst wound repair in severe burns has received substantial research attention, non-severe burns (<20 % total body surface area) remain relatively understudied, despite causing considerable physiological impact and constituting most of the hospital admissions for burns. Early prediction of healing outcomes would decrease financial and patient burden, and aid in preventing long-term complications from poor wound healing. Lipids have been implicated in inflammation and tissue repair and may play essential roles in burn wound healing. In this study, plasma samples were collected from 20 non-severe burn patients over six weeks from admission, including surgery, and analysed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to identify 850 lipids and 112 lipoproteins. Orthogonal projections to latent structures-discriminant analysis was performed to identify changes associated with re-epithelialisation and delayed re-epithelisation. We demonstrated that the lipid and lipoprotein profiles at admission could predict re-epithelisation outcomes at two weeks post-surgery, and that these discriminatory profiles were maintained up to six weeks post-surgery. Inflammatory markers GlycB and C-reactive protein indicated divergent systemic responses to the burn injury at admission. Triacylglycerols, diacylglycerols and low-density lipoprotein subfractions were associated with re-epithelisation (p-value <0.02, Cliff’s delta >0.7), whilst high-density lipoprotein subfractions, phosphatidylinositols, phosphatidylcholines, and phosphatidylserines were associated with delayed wound closure at two weeks post-surgery (p-value <0.01, Cliff’s delta <−0.7). Further model validation will potentially lead to personalised intervention strategies to reduce the risk of chronic complications post-burn injury.