Anest. intenziv. Med. 2012;23(2):91-96

The course of cytokine response in an animal model of intraabdominal sepsis modified by immunosuppressionIntensive Care Medicine - Original Paper

Ročeň Milan^1,*, Kieslichová Eva¹, Kudla Michal², Merta Dušan¹, Šplichal Igor³, Čáp Jiří¹, Gürlich Robert⁴

¹ Klinika anesteziologie, resuscitace a intenzivní péče, Transplantcentrum IKEM, Praha

² Klinika transplantační chirurgie, Transplantcentrum IKEM, Praha

³ Oddělení imunologie a gnotobiologie, Mikrobiologický ústav AVČR, Praha

⁴ Chirurgická klinika, Fakultní nemocnice Královské Vinohrady, Praha

Objective:
The diagnosis of sepsis in immunocompromised patients is difficult due to their modified response to infection. Our experiment was designed to compare the early clinical and laboratory response to sepsis between experimental groups of septic minipigs with and without immunosuppression.

Design:
Experimental, comparative study.

Material and methods:
Experiment was performed on minipigs. Sepsis was induced using a model of caecal ligation and puncture (CLP). Minipigs (with identical baseline parameters) were randomized into 3 group; the sepsis group (n = 10), the immunosuppression group (n = 11), which received immunosuppressive drugs (cyclosporine, methylprednisolone, mycophenolate mofetil) before surgery, and the sham group (n = 6). Plasmatic levels of selected cytokines throughout the experiment in three-hour interval were monitored.

Results:
All CLP animals developed septic shock with febrile and hemodynamic response. Also the kinetics of the plasma levels of TNFα, IL-1β, interferon-γ and CRP in both experimental groups with and without immunosuppression was similar. In immunosuppressed animals the levels of IL-4 were significantly lower in all time periods observed, on the contrary a significant increase of IL-8 levels in the same experimental group was found as well. Ten hours after surgery, significantly higher level of IL-6 was found in the sepsis group as compared to the immunosuppression group. There was a significantly greater increase in levels of IL-10, 19, 22 and 25 hours after surgery in immunosuppressed animals compared to the group without immunosuppression.

Conclusion:
We found significant differencies in cytokine response to experimental sepsis between the groups of immunocompetent and immunosuppressed animals in our experiment.

Keywords: sepsis; immunosuppression; cytokine; caecal ligation and puncture; minipig

Received: February 11, 2012; Accepted: March 11, 2012; Published: April 1, 2012  Show citation