Figure 3.

Caspase inhibition results in preserved hepatic bacterial clearance. (A) After pretreatment with z-VAD-fmk, mice were infected with PA103 10⁴ cfu (severe bacteremia) and killed at 4 and 24 h. Control animals received dimethyl sulfoxide followed by PA103 10⁴ cfu. Pretreatment with z-VAD-fmk resulted in preserved bacterial clearance at 4 and 24 h compared with severe bacteremia alone (*p < 0.01). (B) At 4 h, the severe bacteremia–alone animals had increased serum ALT compared with the animals pretreated with z-VAD-fmk (*p < 0.01). Caspase-3 activity in the liver was increased in the severe bacteremia alone mice at 4 (*p < 0.01) and 24 (**p < 0.001) h. (C) TNF-α was measured in liver lysates. At 4 h, there was no difference in hepatic TNF-α in the mice treated with z-VAD-fmk and the mice treated with severe bacteremia alone. At 24 h, there was increased TNF-α in the mice treated with severe bacteremia alone (*p < 0.01).