Systemic inflammation alters the composition of exhaled breath, possibly helping clinicians diagnose conditions such as sepsis. We therefore evaluated changes in exhaled breath of rats given tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). Thirty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to three groups (n = 10 each) with intravenous injections of normal saline (control), 200 µg·kg⁻¹ bodyweight TNF-α (TNF-α-200), or 600 µg·kg⁻¹ bodyweight TNF-α (TNF-α-600), and were observed for 24 h or until death. Animals were ventilated with highly-purified synthetic air to analyze exhaled air by multicapillary column–ion mobility spectrometry. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were identified from a database. We recorded blood pressure and cardiac output, along with cytokine plasma concentrations. Control rats survived the 24 h observation period, whereas mean survival time decreased to 22 h for TNF-α-200 and 23 h for TNF-α-600 rats. Mean arterial pressure decreased in TNF-α groups, whereas IL-6 increased, consistent with mild to moderate inflammation. Hundreds of VOCs were detected in exhalome. P-cymol increased by a factor-of-two 4 h after injection of TNF-α-600 compared to the control and TNF-α-200. We found that 1-butanol and 1-pentanol increased in both TNF-α groups after 20 h compared to the control. As breath analysis distinguishes between two doses of TNF-α and none, we conclude that it might help clinicians identify systemic inflammation.

中文翻译：

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通风大鼠中TNF-α诱导的炎症过程中呼出的挥发性有机化合物。

全身性炎症会改变呼出气的成分，可能有助于临床医生诊断败血症等疾病。因此，我们评估了给予肿瘤坏死因子-α（TNF-α）的大鼠呼气的变化。将30只Sprague-Dawley雄性大鼠随机分为三组（每组10只），分别静脉注射生理盐水（对照组），200μg·kg ^-1体重TNF-α（TNF-α-200）或600μg·千克^-1体重TNF-α（TNF-α-600），并观察24小时或直至死亡。用高纯度合成空气对动物通风，以多毛细管柱-离子迁移谱法分析呼出空气。从数据库中鉴定出挥发性有机化合物（VOC）。我们记录了血压，心输出量以及细胞因子血浆浓度。对照大鼠在24小时观察期内存活，而TNF-α-200大鼠的平均存活时间降低至22小时，而TNF-α-600大鼠的平均存活时间降低至23小时。TNF-α组的平均动脉压降低，而IL-6升高，与轻度至中度炎症一致。在呼出气中检测到数百种VOC。与对照和TNF-α-200相比，注射TNF-α-600后4小时P-cymol增加了两倍。我们发现与对照组相比，在20小时后，两个TNF-α组中的1-丁醇和1-戊醇均增加。由于呼气分析可以区分两种剂量的TNF-α，而没有两种剂量，因此我们得出结论，这可以帮助临床医生识别全身性炎症。