Fig. 2.

Effect of soluble Saccharomyces cerevisiae-derived β-1,3/1,6-glucan (SBG) administration on mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) in endotoxaemia. Rats were pretreated with SBG or placebo as described, followed by anaesthesia and general surgery to catheterize the jugular vein and carotid artery. MAP was allowed to stabilize for approximately 30 min before intravenous infusion of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (SBGpo n = 8, SBGsc n = 8 and placebo n = 8) or vehicle (sham n = 20) over a 10-min period. The end of the infusion defined the 0 h time-point. MAP was recorded at baseline (BL), 0 h and every 30 min until the 6 h time-point at which the rats were sacrificed. Overall mean MAP at baseline was 142 ± 2 mmHg, with variation between all groups of animals ranging from 136 ± 5 to 147 ± 7 mmHg. No statistically significant differences were observed between the sham animals, regardless of SBG or placebo pretreatment (SBGpo n = 5, SBGsc n = 5 and placebo n = 10) (data not shown), thus the data were combined to one sham group. MAP dynamics are presented as percentage of BL, mean ± s.e.m. *P < 0·05, **P < 0·01, ***P < 0·001 versus placebo as determined by two-way analysis of variance with Bonferroni's multiple comparison test.