Figure 3. Hepatic gene expression in rats 24 hours following either cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) or control procedure. Anesth, anesthesia alone; CO₂-Pneumo, pneumoperitoneum using CO₂ as the insufflation gas; Sham, sham laparotomy). Open CLP (OCLP) and laparoscopic CLP using He (He-LCLP) resulted in increased expression of the acute phase genes α2-macroglobulin (A) and β-fibrinogen (B). Laparoscopic CLP using CO₂ (CO₂-LCLP) yielded significantly less expression of both α2-macroglobulin and β-fibrinogen. No significant differences in the expression of the gene for the free radical scavenger protein metallothionein (C) were found between any of the groups. Livers were harvested from rats immediately following guillotine decapitation 24 hours postprocedure. RNA was isolated from hepatic tissue, separated using slot blotting and radiolabeling techniques, and scanned via laser densitometry to quantify the amount of mRNA for each individual gene. Data are mean ± SEM, expressed in arbitrary mRNA-expression units representing the individual gene densitometry signal normalized to the corresponding 28S rRNA subunit signal (the latter is an indirect measurement of the total amount of RNA in a sample). *P < .05 vs. He-LCLP, †P < .05 vs. OCLP, by one-way ANOVA and Student-Newman-Keuls method.