Figure 5.

The effects of sublethal doses of LeTx compared with placebo administered 3 h before intravenous LPS or intratracheal E. coli challenge on (A) 13 different plasma cytokine levels, (B) MBP, and (C) the odds ratio of survival. Cytokines were measured at 2, 8, and 24 h; blood pressure was averaged over the 24 h after challenge; and survival was assessed after 168 h. With both LPS and E. coli, sublethal LeTx had variable effects on cytokines at 2 and 24 h but consistently reduced all 13 levels at 8 h. The consistent decreases caused by LeTx in all cytokines at 8 h was significantly different from the more variable changes noted at 2 and 24 h with both challenges (p = 0.001 and 0.02 as shown in A). These antiinflammatory effects of sublethal LeTx, while increasing MBP and survival with LPS challenge, produced smaller MBP increases and reduced survival with E. coli in patterns that were significantly different comparing the two challenges (37).