Effects of bacteria/endotoxin translocation on cytokine formation and systemic immunity following hemorrhage/burns

The current experiments were performed to determine bacteria/LPS translocation on cytokine formation immunosuppression following hemorrhage/burns in rats. in Study 1, the results showed that the incidence of bacteria/LPS translocation were reduced significantly at different time points post-resuscitation in animals receiving polymyxin B (p<0.05-0.01). Marked elevation of plasma TNF levels and IL-1 activities of peritoneal macrophages were also found in untreated controls at 0.5-2 h (p<0.05), 6-24 h (p<0.05-0.01) respectively, but prevented by administration of low-dose polymyxin B. In Study 2, thermal injury resulted in marked reductions in splenocyte proliferative response to T-cell mitogens, IL-2 production, and T helper/suppressor cells ratio, which could be partially prevented by measures aiming at controlling translocation. These data clearly demonstrate that bacteria/LPS translocation from the gastrointestinal tract appears to be involved in cytokine release as well as cell-mediated immune dysfunction consequent to acute hemorrhage/burns.