Administration of granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) in experimentally infected rats

Abstract

We investigated the effect of antibiotic or G-CSF plus antibiotic therapy given to E. coli septic rats. In our study, 80 rats were inoculated transperitoneally with 1 ml of a solution containing 10 colony forming units per milliliter of E. coli. Rats were divided into four treatment groups before being inoculated with E. coli in a random fashion. Therapy was then started with cefotaxime (150 mg/kg intraperitoneally) and either Granulocyte- Colony Stimulation Factor (G-CSF; 30 ?g/kg intraperitoneally) or placebo 24 hours after inoculation of E. coli for 3 consecutive days. Group A1, sepsis- antibiotics group, had a mortality rate of 65%; Group A2, sepsis+G-CSF plus antibiotics group, had a mortality rate of 40% (p>0.05); group B1, neutropenic sepsis+antibiotics group, had a mortality rate of 85%, B2, neutropenic sepsis+G-CSF plus antibiotics group, had a mortality rate of 55% (p<0.05). By day 7 after E. coli inoculation, there was a significant difference in the mortality rate between the two neutropenic groups. No significant differences were found in the hemoglobin levels and thrombocyte counts between the groups but a significant increase in white blood cell (WBC) and absolute neutrophil counts (ANC) were found in the G-CSF treated groups. This study shows that administration of G-CSF, in addition to cefotaxime, in neutropenic rats with E. coli sepsis significantly decreased mortality rate compared with antibiotics alone.