The majority of clinical manifestations and ultimate organ damages associated with sepsis are Known to be caused by activation of complement system, coagulation cascades, immunoinflammatory cells, and the corrdinated release of multiple cytokines
in
response to lipopolysaccharide(endotoxin).
Stimulated macrophages, neutrophils, platelets, and capillary endothelium relcase many cytokines and humoral mediators, such as oxygen free radicals, proteases, and eicosanoids, which can induce lung tissue damages with capillary permeability
changes.
The increased understanding of molecular pathogenesis of sepsis enable to develop therapeutic modalities which interrupt cellular and humoral cascades.
Pentoxifylline, a methyxanthine derivative, decrease the aggregation and adhesiveness of the platelet and neutrophil and may suppress the eicosanoids synthesis.
In order to investigate whether pentoxifylline has a protective effect on sepsis induced damages, author conducted this study. Sepsis was induced in 18 Sprague Dawlay rats by cecal ligation and two-site needle punctures. A sham operation was
performed
on a group of rats for control.
The sepsis induced group was devided into two groups of 9 animals each. The first group received no specific tretment. The second group received 16mg/kg/day of pentoxifylline. After 48 hours, all animals were scrificed and evaluated for the
serologic
and histologic changes.
The levels of arterial ketone body ratio(AKBR) and serum lactate were significantly improved in the pentoxifylline group compared to the sepsis group(0.88±0.04 vs. 0.36±0.08 in AKBR level, 112.72±8.29 vs. 161.35±11.03 in serum lactate level
as
M±SE, P<0.01 respectively). The wet/dry weight ratio of lung tissue also revealed therapeutic effect of pentoxifylline(4.39±0.04 vs. 4.61±0.03, P<0.01). In the histologic examination of lung tissue, polymorphonuclear neutrophil(PMN)
infiltration
was
reduced in the pentoxifylline group(18.66±4.00 vs. 29.00±4.68, per 10 HPF, P<0.05). these results showed the beneficial effects of pentoxifylline on the systemic response and pulmonary capillary damage during sepsis.
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