The effect of methylprednisolone on treatment in rats with induced sepsis

• Published in: Clinical and experimental medicine 2009-03, Vol.9 (1), p.45-50
• Main Authors: Çetinkaya, Rıza Aytaç, Görenek, Levent, Coşkun, Ömer, Eyigün, Can Polat, Şenses, Zeynep, Ide, Tayfun, Kiliç, Selim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Antibiotics; Clinical outcomes; Disease Models, Animal; Drug therapy; Hematology; Internal Medicine; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Methylprednisolone - therapeutic use; Oncology; Original Article; Penicillanic Acid - analogs & derivatives; Penicillanic Acid - therapeutic use; Piperacillin - therapeutic use; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Rodents; Sepsis; Sepsis - drug therapy; Steroids
• ISSN: 1591-8890; 1591-9528
• DOI: 10.1007/s10238-008-0016-y

In this study, an appropriate sepsis model was created in rats. Additionally, the effects of steroid treatments on survival, in connection with antibiotic treatment, were investigated. The sepsis model performed via intraperitoneal injection of 3 ml/kg fecal suspension was determined as the most appropriate model for our study. Fifteen rats were used to investigate the effect of piperacillin–tazobactam on sepsis treatment. Forty-five randomly selected rats were used to investigate the efficacy of the antibiotic-plus-steroid combination. The rats were divided into three groups of 15 rats each. Twelve hours after the administration of fecal suspension, methylprednisolone (MP) at the dose of 0.25, 0.5, and 2 mg/kg/day was given to each group, respectively, in addition to an antibiotic administered intravenously. In order to investigate the effect of steroids alone in the treatment of sepsis, 0.5 mg/kg/day MP was given intravenously to 15 rats, 12 h after the fecal suspension was administered. It was concluded that administration of MP alone shortens survival time in rats with sepsis, whereas antibiotic therapy alone increases survival time significantly in rats with sepsis. It was seen that the antibiotic-plus-steroid treatment increases survival significantly compared to rats with no treatment ( p   0.05), and very low doses increase survival and mean survival time ( p  > 0.05) on the basis of clinical observation and average life time. However, low doses were found to increase survival significantly ( p