Premium
Anti—Interleukin‐6 Antibodies Attenuate Inflammation in a Rat Meningitis Model
Author(s) -
Marby David,
Lockhart Gregory R.,
Raymond Richard,
Linakis James G.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
academic emergency medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.221
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1553-2712
pISSN - 1069-6563
DOI - 10.1111/j.1553-2712.2001.tb01090.x
Subject(s) - medicine , cerebrospinal fluid , meningitis , antibody , inflammation , saline , white blood cell , interleukin , immunology , cytokine , surgery
Objectives: Interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) is elevated in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of humans and animals with bacterial meningitis. This study's hypothesis was that anti‐IL‐6 antibodies will attenuate meningeal inflammation in a rat model of bacterial meningitis. Methods: 14 male Sprague‐Dawley rats were inoculated intracisternally (IC) with 0.1 mL of heat‐killed pneumococci. At one hour post‐inoculation, the rats received intraperitoneal doses of either 1.0 mL phosphate‐buffered saline (PBS treatment group, n ? 7) or 70 μg anti‐IL‐6 antibodies in 1.0 mL PBS (anti‐IL‐6 antibody treatment group, n ? 7). Nine rats (normal group, n ? 9) had no inoculation, and four rats (surgical sham group, n ? 4) had IC inoculations of saline. At six hours post‐inoculation, all the animals had CSF removed via IC tap. The CSF protein and white blood cell (WBC) count measures were compared using a t‐test. Results: Mean CSF WBC for the anti‐IL‐6 treatment group was 2,458/μL, versus the PBS controls' mean of 9,697/μL (p ? 0.007). Mean CSF protein for the anti‐IL‐6 group was 180 mg/dL, versus 296 mg/dL for the controls (p ? 0.032). The surgical sham and normal animals had normal CSF WBC and protein values. Conclusions: In this rat meningitis model, systemic treatment with anti‐IL‐6 antibodies after the induction of meningitis suppressed both CSF WBC count and CSF protein level, two important indices of meningeal inflammation.