Fig. 3.

Ghrelin and GH in combination attenuate lymphopenia in aged rats with sepsis in a vagus nerve dependent manner. Rats were subjected to sham or CLP operation and treated with vehicle (normal saline) or GG (ghrelin 80 nmol/kg, GH 50 μg/kg) at 5 h after CLP. In an additional group of rats, vagotomy was performed at the time of CLP and treated with GG at 5 h after CLP. Blood and spleens were collected at 20 h after CLP. a, b Circulating lymphocytes were measured using a hematology analyzer. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 4–6 rats/group). c The levels of cleaved caspase-3 in the spleen were determined by western blotting. The representative western blot images are shown. Sham was normalized as 1 in western blot analysis. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 4–5 rats/group). *P < 0.05 vs. sham; ^#P < 0.05 vs. CLP with vehicle treatment; ^†P < 0.05 vs. CLP with GG treatment