Figure 8.

Paclitaxel administration prolonged mouse survival during bacterial infection. (A) Mice were injected (i.p.) with paclitaxel (5 and 10 mg/kg body weight) or vehicle (PBS) 1 h before peritoneal injection with viable Escherichia coli (2 × 10⁹ CFU/mouse). Mouse survival was monitored every 6 h for 5 consecutive days. Kaplan–Meier survival curves were used to analyze the data (10 mice per group). The significance was evaluated by the log-rank (Mantel–Cox) test. Three independent experiments were performed and one representative set of data were shown. ^**P < 0.01; ^***P < 0.001. (B–D) Mice were injection (i.p.) with paclitaxel (10 mg/kg body weight) or vehicle (PBS) 1 h before peritoneal injection with viable E. coli (1 × 10⁹ CFU/mouse) for 8 h. Bacterial counts in the peritoneal cavity was measured by using an ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer, and the corresponding CFUs were determined on LB media agar plates (B). The serum levels of IL-1β were measured by cytometric bead array (five mice per group) (C). (B,C), Data were analyzed using the unpaired Student's t-test, which are shown as mean ± SD (n = 5). ^*P < 0.05; ^***P < 0.001. Representative images of hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining of the liver section are shown and arrowheads indicated infiltrated inflammatory cells (D). The numbers at the bottom indicate mouse number. Scale bars, 100 μm. PTX, paclitaxel.