The effect of interleukin 1 alpha on survival in a murine model of burn wound sepsis
G. M. Silver, R. L. Gamelli, M. O'Reilly and J. C. Hebert
Department of Surgery, University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington 05405.
We examined the effects of human recombinant interleukin 1 alpha (IL-1
alpha) in a murine model of burn wound sepsis. The BDF1 male mice received
a 15% burn injury, followed by burn wound inoculation with Pseudomonas
aeruginosa. Improvement in survival was noted in the mice that received a
single injection of 100 or 1000 ng of IL-1 alpha in comparison with the
control animals (IL-1 alpha, 100 ng vs control, 60% vs 13%; IL-1 alpha,
1000 ng vs control, 40% vs 0%). The animals that received 1 ng twice daily
for 7 days had improved survival in comparison with the controls (IL-1
alpha vs control, 70.8% vs 20.8%). The animals that received a single
injection of 1000 ng after a bacterial challenge with 10(4) P aeruginosa of
IL-1 alpha had fewer positive blood cultures at 48 hours compared with the
controls (57% vs 89%). In addition, the animals that received 100 ng of
IL-1 alpha had significantly increased absolute neutrophil counts at 6, 24,
and 48 hours after thermal injury and bacterial challenge with 10(3)
colony-forming units of P aeruginosa. The use of cytokines to modulate the
host response to injury or infection may lead to additional strategies to
improve the outcome following burn injury.
