Infections produce severe respiratory muscle dysfunction. It is known that the proteasome proteolytic system is activated in skeletal muscle in sepsis, and it has been postulated that this degradative pathway is responsible for inducing skeletal muscle weakness and wasting. The objective of this study was to determine if administration of proteasomal inhibitors (MG132, epoxomicin, bortezomib) c...

High-flux dialysis membranes used with bicarbonate dialysis fluid increase the risk of back diffusion of bacterial endotoxin into the blood during hemodialysis. Endotoxin transfer of various synthetic fiber membranes was tested with bacterial culture filtrates using an in vitro system testing both diffusive and convective conditions. Membranes were tested in a simulated dialysis mode with endot...

BACKGROUND The relationship of domestic endotoxin exposure to allergy and asthma has been widely investigated. However, few studies have evaluated predictors of household endotoxin, and none have done so for multiple locations within homes and on a national scale. OBJECTIVES We assayed 2,552 house dust samples in a nationwide study to understand the predictors of household endotoxin in bedroo...

INTRODUCTION Serum and bronchoalveolar fluid IL-6 are increased in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and predict prolonged mechanical ventilation and poor outcomes, although the role of intra-alveolar IL-6 in indirect lung injury is unknown. We investigated the role of endogenous and exogenous intra-alveolar IL-6 in AKI-mediated lung injury (indirect lung injury), intrape...

the possibility of replacing the rabbit pyrogen test by the limulus amebocyte lysate (lal) test, as a final release test for large volume parenterals (lvps) was investigated. the sensitivity and specificity of the lal test and rabbit pyrogen assay were studied by means of artificially contaminated parenterals. various lvps (mostly containing electrolytes) were spiked with 0.5 and 5 eulml of e.c...

BACKGROUND Inhaled perfluorohexan vapor has been shown to improve gas exchange and pulmonary mechanics in oleic acid- and ventilator-induced lung injury. However, in the clinical setting, lung injury frequently occurs in the context of systemic inflammation and consecutive lung injury, which may be induced experimentally by intravenous administration of endotoxin. The authors studied whether va...

Interleukin 8 (IL-8), a potent activator of neutrophils, may be important in the early host response to serious Gram-negative infections. IL-8 was measured with other acute phase cytokines (tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNF-alpha], IL-6 and IL-1 beta) in 25 normal humans randomized to receive either intravenous endotoxin alone or endotoxin after oral administration of ibuprofen or pentoxifylline...

Healthy male volunteers were rendered tolerant to the pyrogenic and toxic activities of bacterial endotoxin by daily intravenous injections. Five subjects were given 0.5 microg Salmonella typhosa endotoxin for 7 days; four subjects were given Pseudomonas endotoxin, increasing over a period of 30 days from 25 to 250 microg. Reticuloendothelial system (RES) phagocytic activity was assessed by ser...

The febrile response to bacterial endotoxin was measured in rabbits made leukopenic with nitrogen mustard. A striking increase in susceptibility to the lethal effects of endotoxin occurred in severely leukopenic animals. Animals without circulating granulocytes, or with only basophils, developed no significant fever after endotoxin injection. Animals with circulating granulocytes other than bas...

The receptor for urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPAR) (CD87) plays an important role in leukocyte adhesion and migration. To assess the effect of endotoxin on cellular uPAR, uPAR expression was determined on leukocytes by fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis in seven healthy subjects following intravenous injection of endotoxin (lot G; 4 ng/kg). Endotoxin induced a transient incre...