Peritoneal FGF-2 as a Potential Marker for Traumatic Gastrointestinal Tract Injury

Sophia M Trinh^1,2 , Ada I Ozcan¹, Jenna Dennis¹, Cara Ramos¹, Cameron J Fontenot¹, Jared Robinson¹, Claudia Leonardi³, Lance E Stuke^1,2, Juan C Duchesne⁴, Alan B Marr^1,2, John P Hunt^1,2, Patrick Greiffenstein^1,2, Jeffery A Hobden⁵, Alison A Smith^1,2*

¹Department of Surgery, Louisiana State University Health Science Center, New Orleans, LA, USA
²University Medical Center, New Orleans, LA, USA
³Louisiana State University Health Science Center School of Public Health, New Orleans, LA, USA
⁴Department of Surgery, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA
⁵Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Louisiana State University Health Science Center, New Orleans, LA, USA

*Correspondence author: Alison A Smith, MD, PhD, FACS, Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery, Louisiana State University, Department of Surgery, 2021 Perdido Street, Room 8143, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA;
Email: [email protected]

Citation: Trinh SM, et al. Peritoneal FGF-2 as a Potential Marker for Traumatic Gastrointestinal Tract Injury. J Reg Med Biol Res. 2025;6(2):1-4.

Copyright^© 2025 by Trinh SM, et al. All rights reserved. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Table 1: Median cytokine concentrations (min,max) of patients in the Gastrointestinal Tract Injury (GITI) and nGITI (no GITI) groups.

Figure 1: Change in cytokine concentrations between the initial procedure and the takeback [change (Δ) = IP – TB]. GITI: Gastrointestinal Tract Injury; nGITI: no Gastrointestinal Tract Injury; FGF-2: Fibroblast Growth Factor- 2; MCP-1: Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1; VEGF: Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor.

Discussion

FGF-2 enhances intestinal stem cell survival following radiation injury and has been shown to maintain intestinal stem cells in a pluripotent, undifferentiated state in-vitro [3]. FGF-2 has also been identified as the initiator and key driver of intestinal healing across various types of injury [4]. Our study identified a significant decrease in peritoneal FGF-2 concentrations in the no GITI group between the initial and takeback operations amongst patients who underwent DCL. This decrease might be an indication of a reduced need for intestinal regeneration in these patients.

The reduction in peritoneal FGF-2 levels over time could potentially serve as a marker to rule out GI Injury. Future studies with larger sample sizes and a longer evaluation period may provide enough data to support the utility of FGF-2 levels as a diagnostic tool. This could pave the way for less invasive methods such as peritoneal fluid aspirations to rule out GI tract injury in patients who would otherwise require laparotomies.

To establish FGF-2 as a clinical tool, a physiologic range for FGF-2 and how it is impacted by environmental and individual factors, such as alcohol consumption, diabetes and presence of infections, need to be determined. A major limitation of our study is that FGF-2 were obtained following trauma and there was not a baseline level for these patients. Future studies could monitor FGF-2 over a longer period of time, preferably until complete anatomical recovery is reached. Additionally, assays with higher sensitivities such as Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assays (ELISA) can be performed to eliminate the potential interference from cross reacting chemicals. Future studies should also monitor blood FGF-2 concentrations over time and determine the relationship between blood and peritoneal fluid FGF-2 levels.

In conclusion, a decrease in peritoneal fluid FGF-2 levels in trauma patients might suggest an absence of GI tract injuries. If further studies confirm the sensitivity of FGF-2 as a clinical marker in abdominal trauma, it could potentially aid in the prompt recognition of injuries in need of urgent treatment.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

Not applicable.

Declaration

We hereby declare that no artificial intelligence technology or software was used in the creation, drafting or editing of this literature review and that all the information contained in this literature review was created using information from credible sources in my own words, without deliberately plagiarizing information from said sources.

Funding

None.

References

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