Alterations in the intestinal bacterial flora modulate the systemic
cytokine response to hemorrhagic shock.
Guo, Weidun, Jiayi Ding, Qinghong Huang, Thomas Jerrells, Edwin A.
Deitch.
Department of Surgery, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ
and Department of Anatomy and Molecular Biology, LSU-Medical Center,
Shreveport, LA
APStracts 2:0125G, 1995.
To test the hypothesis that the resident gut flora plays an active
role in modulating the cytokine response to hemorrhagic shock, plasma
levels of IL-6 and TNF were measured from the following three groups
of rats prior to, immediately after and 3, 8 or 24 hr post
hemorrhagic shock (90 min at 30 mm/Hg)/sham shock: 1) rats with a
normal gut flora (NF), 2) rats whose gut flora had been
decontaminated with oral antibiotics (AD), and 3) rats with
intestinal overgrowth with E. coli. In all 3 groups, portal and
systemic TNF and IL-6 levels were 2-10 fold higher in the shock than
the sham shock rats (p<0.05), with the highest TNF and IL-6
levels observed in the rats who were colonized with E. coli
(p<0.05 vs AD and NF). TNF levels were higher in the NF than the
AD groups at 3 and 8 hrs post-shock. The present study suggests that
changes in the gut microflora modulate the systemic cytokine response
to hemorrhagic shock with intestinal bacterial overgrowth leading to
the greatest increase in plasma IL-6 and TNF levels.
Received 22 March 1995; accepted in final form 12 June 1995.
APS Manuscript Number G122-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Gastrointest. Liver
Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 11 July 1995.