Decrease of Plasma Platelet-Activating Factor Acetylhydrolase Activity in Lipopolysaccharide Induced Mongolian Gerbil Sepsis Model

Platelet-activating factor (PAF) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of sepsis, and the level of plasma PAF acetylhydrolase (pPAF-AH), which inactivates PAF, decreases in sepsis patients except for the sepsis caused by severe leptospirosis. Usually, increase of pPAF-AH activity was observed in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced Syrian hamster and rat sepsis models, while contradictory effects were reported for mouse model in different studies. Here, we demonstrated the in vivo effects of LPS upon the change of pPAF-AH activity in C57BL/6 mice and Mongolian gerbils. After LPS-treatment, the clinical manifestations of Mongolian gerbil model were apparently similar to that of C57BL/6 mouse sepsis model. The pPAF-AH activity increased in C57BL/6 mice after LPS induction, but decreased in Mongolian gerbils, which was similar to that of the human sepsis. It thus suggests that among the LPS-induced rodent sepsis models, only Mongolian gerbil could be used for the study of pPAF-AH related to the pathogenesis of human sepsis. Proper application of this model might enable people to clarify the underline mechanism accounted for the contradictory results between the phase II and phase III clinical trials for the administration of recombinant human pPAF-AH in the sepsis therapy.