Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, Vol 51, Issue 5 M220-M222, Copyright © 1996 by The Gerontological Society of America
The relationship of aging to endotoxin shock and to production of TNF- alpha
HN Chang, SR Wang, SC Chiang, WJ Teng, ML Chen, JJ Tsai, DF Huang, HY Lin and YY Tsai
Department of Medicine, Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
BACKGROUND: Aged people are considered prone to gram-negative bacteremia
and septic shock. This relationship was tested in murine endotoxin shock.
METHODS: Balb/c mice of various ages (1.4-13.4 months) were
intraperitoneally injected with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and rates of
survival were observed. The production of TNF-alpha in vivo induced by LPS
was measured. RESULTS: The survival rates were the smallest in the oldest
and youngest groups. Production of TNF-alpha attained a maximum at 2 h
after LPS injection and was smaller in the oldest group; it had a
reciprocal relationship to survival rates in each group except the youngest
group. CONCLUSION: Old and young mice had smaller rates of survival and
greater production of TNF-alpha following endotoxin shock induced by LPS.
