Fig. 4.
Prophylactic and therapeutic administration of anti-TLR4 antibodies protect mice from lethal Gram-negative bacterial sepsis. (A–D) BALB/c mice were injected i.p. with anti-TLR4 or control antibodies (160 mg/kg for A–C and 200 mg/kg for D) given before (prophylactically; A and B) or after (therapeutically; C and D) an i.p. injection of a high (2 × 109 cfu) inoculum (A–C) or low (2 × 105 cfu) inoculum (D) of E. coli O18. (A) Plasma concentrations of TNF and IL-6 were measured 4 h after the bacterial challenge. The horizontal line represents the median cytokine concentration. P < .005 for TNF and IL-6. (B–D) Survival of mice treated prophylactically (B) (at −4, −0.5, and + 4 h) or therapeutically either early (+1 and + 4 h) (C) or late (+13 h) (D). P < .0001, .02, and .03, respectively. Data points are from 1 experiment (n = 10–12 mice per treatment group).