. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Aug 13.

Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Immunol. 2009 Jun;9(6):418–428. doi: 10.1038/nri2566

Table 1.

Experimental systems for defining the inflammatory reflex

Experimental model	Activation method	Result	Refs
Endotoxin-induced shock	Direct electical stimulation of cervical vagus nerve	Inhibition of serum TNF secretion and attenuation of shock	2
Sepsis induced by lethal peritonitis	Transcutaneous stimulation of cervical vagus nerve	Inhibition of serum HMGB1 secretion and improved survival	97
Pancreatitis	Administration of the α7nAChR agonist GTS-21	Decreased pancreatitis severity	33
Pancreatitis	Vagotomy and administration of an α7nAChR antagonist	Increased pancreatitis severity	33
Peripheral inflammation in subcutaneous tissue	Direct electical stimulation of cervical vagus nerve	Inhibition of neutrophil recruitment to the wound	37
Haemorrhagic shock	Direct electrical stimulation of cervical vagus nerve	Decreased hypotension severity, inhibition of TNF secretion, prolonged survival and downregulateion of NF-κB activity	35
Ischaemia-reperfusion injury secondary to suprarenal aortic clamping	Direct electrical stimulation of cervical vagus nerve	Inhibition of cytokine production in spleen, liver and heart, and attenuation of shock and tissue damage	36
Collagen-induced arthritis	Surgical stimulation of the cervical vagus nerve	Decreased arthritis severity	95
	Administration of the α7nAChR agonist AR-R17779	Inhibition of TNF secretion and decreased arthritis severity	94
	Vagotomy	Increased arthritis severity	94
Ileus	Vagotomy	Increased ilieus severity	41
Ileus	Administration of the α7nAChR agonist AR-R17779	Attenuation of post-operative ileus and amelioration of intestinal inflammation	41
Myocardial infarction	Direct electrical stimulation of cervical vagus nerve	Inhibition of cardiac myoglobin release during reperfusion injury	98
Colitis	Administration of α7nAChR antagonists and vagotomy	Increased colitis severity	28,31,32
Colitis	Administration of α7nAChR agonists	Decreased colitis severity	28,99,100

α7nAChR; nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit α7; HMBG1, high-mobility group box 1 protein; NF-κB, nuclear factor κB; TNF, tumour necrosis factor.