Objectives:

Acute respiratory distress syndrome is characterized by an overly exuberant inflammatory state in the lung. Specialized proresolving mediators are endogenous agonists for the resolution of lung inflammation and injury in health, yet their association with acute respiratory distress syndrome severity and outcomes remains to be defined. In the current study, we investigate associations between plasma levels of specialized proresolving mediators and acute respiratory distress syndrome severity and mortality.

Design:

Translational pilot study nested within a large prospective cohort of patients with risk factors for acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Setting:

ICU from a large medical center.

Patients:

Twenty-six Caucasian patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome and available plasma from early in critical illness.

Interventions:

None.

Measurements and Main Results:

Here, in samples from 26 acute respiratory distress syndrome patients, we examined plasma levels of select specialized proresolving mediators that promote lung injury resolution in preclinical systems, namely lipoxin A 4 and maresin 1, and select prophlogistic lipid mediators linked to acute respiratory distress syndrome pathogenesis, namely cysteinyl leukotrienes and thromboxane B 2. These mediators were detected by sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay: lipoxin A 4 (assay range)(8.2–5,000 pg/mL), maresin 1 (7.8–1,000 pg/mL), cysteinyl leukotrienes (7.8–1,000 pg/mL), and thromboxane B 2 (15.6–2,000 pg/mL). Lower plasma levels of specialized proresolving mediators were associated with increased duration of ventilatory support and ICU length of stay. Even in this small sample size, trends were evident for increased cysteinyl leukotrienes to specialized proresolving mediator ratios (cysteinyl leukotrienes/maresin 1 and cysteinyl leukotrienes/lipoxin A 4) in acute respiratory distress syndrome nonsurvivors.

Conclusions:

Lower specialized proresolving mediator levels in acute respiratory distress syndrome patients may disrupt timely resolution of lung inflammation and/or injury and contribute to clinical severity and mortality.