The aim of this study was to observe the impact of seawater immersion on the dynamic expressions of NF-κB and IκB mRNA in small intestinal tissues in rats with abdominal open injury. Wistar rats were randomly divided into three groups: the control group (n = 7), the abdominal open injury (AOI) group and abdominal open injury plus seawater immersion (AOI+SI) group. The dynamic expressions of NF- κB and IκB mRNA in small intestinal tissues were detected in each group/subgroup by real-time PCR

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... od. After 72 h, NF-κB mRNA level of AOI+SI group was increased obviously compared to that of AOI group (P<0.01). The IκB mRNA expression of both AOI+SI and AOI groups were increased obviously after 48 h compared to that of the control, but the difference between AOI+SI group and AOI group showed that the increase of AOI+SI group was more significant (P<0.01). In the long time of seawater immersion (>72 h), the NF-κB mRNA expression was significantly up-regulated, which promoted the synthesis of NF-κB protein and further magnified NF-κB signal pathways to lead to the development of continued inflammatory course ultimately; meanwhile, the obviously up-regulated IκB -α mRNA level increased the expression of IκB-α protein to down-regulate the activity of NF-κb as much as possible.