The role of interleukin-6 as an early predictor of sepsis in a murine sepsis model

Vol. 60 No. 1, 2019

ROMANIAN JOURNAL of MORPHOLOGY and EMBRYOLOGY

Iudita Maria Badea, Razvan Azamfirei, Bianca Liana Grigorescu, Gergo Raduly, Adina Hutanu, Marius Petrisor, Alexandra Elena Lazar, Emoke Almasy, Raluca Stefania Fodor, Adrian Man, Janos Szederjesi, Simona Gurzu, Leonard Azamfirei, Anca Meda Georgescu

Aim: Evaluating the role of interleukin-6 (IL-6) as an early predictor of sepsis in a murine model. Materials and Methods: The study divided 26 Wistar rats into two experimental groups in which sepsis was induced through the intraperitoneal injection of different Escherichia coli cultures [Group 1: Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing culture and Group 2: Standardized ATCC35218 culture] and a control group. IL-6 levels were determined at 5 and 24 hours post-inoculation and immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed on tissue samples from the sacrificed animals. Results: Mean plasma IL-6 levels in Group 1 peaked at 5 hours [37.4 pg/mL; standard deviation (SD) = 2.4 pg/mL] and decreased at 24 hours (34 pg/mL; SD=3.2 pg/mL) after inoculation. IL-6 levels in Group 1 were elevated compared to Group 2, at 5 hours (33.7 pg/mL; SD=3.3 pg/mL; p=0.019) and non-significantly so at 24 hours (32.5 pg/mL; SD=2.4 pg/mL; p=0.233). The results did not show an increase over control levels at either 5 hours (37.6 pg/mL; SD=3.4 pg/mL) or 24 hours (40.8 pg/mL; SD=2.9 pg/mL) after inoculation. The IHC shows a varying degree of IL-6 expression across all organ types studied. No statistically significant correlations were found between the tissue level quantification of IL-6 and serum values at 24 hours in either group. Conclusions: For an early stage of infection/inflammation, serum levels of IL-6 are not correlated with tissue-level inflammation disproving a potential role of IL-6 as a very precocious diagnostic and predictor test. Accumulation of IL-6 in lung, kidney and spleen tissue can be observed from the beginning of inflammation.

Corresponding author: : Bianca Liana Grigorescu, Lecturer, MD, PhD; e-mail: biancagrigorescu20@yahoo.com; Leonard Azamfirei, Professor, MD, PhD; e-mail: leonard.azamfirei@umftgm.ro

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