Figure 1.

Survival following endotoxin (LPS) injection in transgenic mice expressing or not expressing CRP. Fifteen PEPCK-CRP transgenic mice, strain PC-12, were maintained on a carbohydrate-rich diet (dashed line), while another 15 transgenic mice were provided an isocaloric protein-rich diet (solid line) for the 24 hr prior to i.p. injection of 16, 17.5, or 18 μg/kg endotoxin (LPS) in 0.5 ml 0.9% NaCl. Survival of the animals was followed over the next 7 days. PC-12 mice on the protein-rich diet showed serum CRP levels of 75–200 μg/ml, and those on the carbohydrate-rich diet had serum levels of <20 μg/ml during this period. Serum CRP levels were measured with a specific radial-immunodiffusion assay as described (10). The data shown are from a representative experiment. The survival difference between the two groups showed a P < 0.02 calculated by the chi square test with Yates’ correction. A summary of all experiments is shown in Fig. 2.