Table 1.
Antibiotic therapy used in murine cecal ligation and puncture studies.
Fig 1.
Antibiotics+Fluids vs. Fluids alone survival.
Mice receiving antibiotics plus fluid resuscitation versus fluids only have a significantly better survival following CLP. Mice received 5 days of antibiotic therapy post-cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) treatment with 1ml D5LR and the broad spectrum antibiotic imipenem-cilastatin (25 mg/kg) compared to septic mice receiving just 1 ml of D5LR for 5 days post-CLP. N = 7–10 mice per group. **p <0.01 comparing the two groups.
Fig 2.
There were no physiological differences between mice receiving 5 days of imipenem-cilastatin treatment versus 3 days of treatment following CLP. Data expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 16–22 mice per group for body weight, temperature, and blood glucose measurement. N = 6 mice per group for pulse oximetry).
Table 2.
Physiological and glucose measurements 5 days post-CLP.
Fig 3.
The shorter 3 day antibiotic treatment did not significantly change peripheral blood measurements in septic mice compared to 5 days of treatment. Five day treatment mice showed elevations of WBC, neutrophil, and lymphocyte counts starting at day 7 which normalized by day 28. Five day treatment had significantly higher WBC and neutrophil counts only at 14 and 21 days post-CLP, respectively. The WBC and neutrophil count remained elevated at day 28 compared to the pre-CLP values, probably due to the ongoing stress of the infection. All other hematologic changes returned to pre-CLP (day 0) levels by day 28. Data expressed as mean ± SEM, n = 16–18 per group, *p < .05 **p < .01.
Table 3.
Pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines at day 1 post-CLP.
Table 4.
Pro-inflammatory and Anti-inflammatory Cytokines 5 days post-CLP.
Fig 4.
Peritoneal Lavage bacterial CFUs day 5 post-CLP.
Mice were euthanized at day 5 post-CLP and the peritoneum lavaged and cultured. There were no significant differences in the number of bacterial colony forming units. Individual data points are show as well as the mean ± SEM, n = 6–7 mice per group.
Fig 5.
There was no significant survival difference between the 5 days versus 3 days treatment group following CLP. N = 27–28 mice per group. There is also no statistically significant difference between the survival of the 5 day mice in this group and the comparable group in Fig 1.