Impact of ulinastatin on survival and lymphocyte apoptosis in septic mice

Abstract

Objective To observe the effect of ulinastatin on the survival and lymphocyte apoptosis in mice with cecal ligation and puncture(CLP) induced sepsis,so as to investigate the possible mechanism of ulinastatin action in sepsis.Methods Forty 8-10 weeks old male C57BL/6 mice(22-30 g body weight) were randomly assigned to four groups,i.e.,Sham group,CLP group,CLP plus UTI ip group(100 000 U/kg by intraperitoneal injection at half an hour after operation),and CLP plus UTI iv group(100 000 U/kg by intravenous injection at half an hour after operation).After successful establishment of CLP model,the 7-day survival of the 10 animals in each group was observed and the survival curve was also plotted.Based on the 7-day survival of animals,another 40 mice were divided into the above 4 groups and specimens were collected 24 h after CLP to examine the lymphocyte count in the peripheral blood,thymus and spleen and the apoptosis of lymphocytes in the thymus and spleen.The statistical analyses were done with Prism5.01(GraphPad Software,USA).Results The 7-day survival rates in the two UTI groups were significantly higher than that in the CLP group(P0.05).The lymphocyte counts in the two UTI groups were significantly higher than that in the CLP group(P0.05),and the lymphocyte apoptosis rates in the two UTI groups were significantly lower than that in the CLP group(P0.05).The above parameters were not significantly different between the two UTI groups.Conclusion Both intraperitoneal and intravenous treatment with UTI can greatly improve the survival of septic mice,which might be related to the roles of UTI in increasing the lymphocytes count in the peripheral blood,thymus and spleen of septic mice and in alleviating lymphocyte apoptosis in the thymus and spleen.