In Brief:
Trauma and hemorrhagic shock cause ischemic insult to the gut, resulting in the release of biologically active factors into the mesenteric lymph, which then cause injury to multiple distant organs. In vitro and in vivo, low-dose albumin protected against trauma/hemorrhagic shock (T/HS)-induced endothelial cell, lung and red blood cell injury, but not gut injury, by neutralizing T/HS lymph toxicity.
