Plasma fibronectin augments the clearance of blood-borne foreign and effete complexes by mononuclear phagocytes. The release of a "gelatin-like" ligand into plasma after thermal injury has been reported. We quantified the release of this collagenous debris from thermally injured skin, and its potential interaction with soluble fibronectin in plasma using anesthetized rats. Collagen-like material debris in the plasma was detected by assay of hydroxyproline. Fibronectin was measured by a double antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. Over a 24-hour postburn interval, plasma hydroxyproline increased from 6.7 +/- 0.6 micrograms/mL to a maximum of 19.0 +/- 3.3 micrograms/mL at 60 minutes postburn, and normalized by 6 hours. A direct correlation existed between the magnitude of burn injury and the increase in plasma hydroxyproline. In parallel, plasma fibronectin declined over a 15-minute to 2-hour period postburn, and normalized by 3 to 4 hours with rebound hyperfibronectinemia observed at 24 hours. The elevation in total plasma hydroxyproline was not due to an increase in plasma Clq (zero time, 26.2 +/- 1.4 micrograms/mL; 60 minutes, 23.9 +/- 1.1 micrograms/mL). Tracer studies with 125I-fibronectin showed that the acute decline of plasma fibronectin was due to its uptake by the liver and binding to sites of tissue injury. Total hydroxyproline in extracts of burn skin, used as an index of soluble collagenous material, rose from 15 +/- 3.3 micrograms/g skin at zero time to 129.3 +/- 43.7 micrograms/g skin by 5 minutes postburn, with a decline to 38 +/- 22 micrograms/g skin by 24 hours. The formation of circulating fibronectin-gelatin complexes in vivo was documented by cross-immunoelectrophoresis coupled with autoradiography using 125I-gelatin as a model ligand. Thus, collagenous tissue debris from burned skin may enter the plasma after thermal injury and directly complexes with soluble fibronectin before hepatic phagocytic clearance.