SPECIAL ARTICLES  ANESTHESIA Free access

Minerva Anestesiologica 2005 October;71(10):601-7

Copyright © 2005 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

Blunted inflammatory response to lipopolysaccharide endotracheal instillation due to thermal preconditioning

Di Filippo A. ¹, Rinaldi S. ¹, Pascente C. ¹, Messeri D. ², De Gaudio A. R. ¹

¹ Section of Anaesthesia Department of Critical Care University of Florence, Florence, Italy 2 Unit of Infectious Disease ASL-3 Pistoia, Pistoia, Italy

Aim. Heat shock proteins (HSPs), induced by thermal stress, make the cells more resistant to following stress. We aimed to verify if rats heating reduces the production of TNF-α in a model of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Methods. We divided 34 Wistar rats in Group A and Group B. The rats of Group A received thermal shock and tracheal instillation of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), the rats of Group B only tracheal instillation of LPS. All the rats have been then subdivided in 6 subgroups sacrificed at different times after instillation of LPS: A30 and B30 at 30 min, A90 and B90 at 90 min and A180 and B180 at 180 min. We dosed the serum concentration of TNF-α and the values of every subgroup have been compared with the Student t-test.
Results. The serum concentration of TNF-α in the subgroup A90 resulted significantly lower than in the subgroup B90.
Conclusion. The exposure to thermal stress resulting in the production of HSPs reduced the concentration of TNF-α in this model of ARDS.