Published Online
on December 20, 2004

A more recent version of this article appeared on January 4, 2005

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Submitted on April 26, 2004
Revised on September 1, 2004
Accepted on September 24, 2004

Protective Role of Angiopoietin-1 in Endotoxic Shock

Bernhard Witzenbichler MD^*, Dirk Westermann MD, Sabine Knueppel BS, Heinz-Peter Schultheiss MD, and Carsten Tschope MD

From the Department of Cardiology and Pneumology, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charité Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: b.witzenbichler{at}gmx.de.

Background--Angiopoietin-1 (Ang1) plays an essential role in embryonic vasculature development, protects the adult peripheral vasculature from leakage, and has antiinflammatory properties. Because endotoxin-induced shock is a condition with microvascular leakage resulting from inflammation, we examined the potential therapeutic benefit of Ang1 in a murine model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced endotoxic shock.

Methods and Results--To induce endotoxic shock, LPS was injected intraperitoneally into C57BL/6 mice. Half of the mice received an intravenous application of 1.0x10⁹ plaque-forming units of an adenoviral construct expressing human Ang1 (AdhAng1); in the other half an identical vector expressing green fluorescent protein (AdGFP) was injected as a control. In the AdhAng1-treated mice, hepatic transfection and high expression of circulating Ang1 protein were observed. Whereas in LPS-treated control mice, hemodynamic function was severely depressed 12 hours after LPS injection (decrease of blood pressure from 91±3 to 49±7 mm Hg, dP/dt_max from 7284±550 to 2699±233 mm Hg/s, cardiac output from 11.3±1.2 to 2.8±0.8 mL/min; P<0.0005), in LPS-treated AdhAng1 mice blood pressure fell only to 76±3 mm Hg, dP/dt_max to 5091±489 mm Hg/s, and cardiac output to 6.7±1.4 mL/min (P<0.05). This resistance to LPS-induced hemodynamic changes was reflected by an improved Kaplan-Meier survival rate of the AdhAng1 mice. Histological analysis revealed that lung injury after LPS injection was markedly attenuated in AdhAng1 mice. In addition, LPS-induced increase in lung water content and pulmonary myeloperoxidase activity was significantly reduced. Furthermore, LPS-induced increases in the expression level of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, intracellular adhesion molecule-1, and E-selectin protein in the lungs were markedly lower in AdhAng1 mice than in control mice. Finally, in the mice overexpressing Ang1, pulmonary endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) expression and activity remained preserved after LPS challenge, providing evidence that the beneficial effect of Ang1 in endotoxic shock is mediated by eNOS-derived NO.

Conclusions--Our study demonstrates an improved mortality rate in mice with endotoxic shock pretreated with an adenoviral construct encoding Ang1. The enhanced survival rate induced by Ang1 was accompanied by an improvement in hemodynamic function, reduced lung injury, a lower expression of inflammatory adhesion molecules, and preserved eNOS activity in the lung tissue. Ang1 may therefore have utility as an adjunctive agent for the treatment of septic shock condition.

Key words: shock • genes • cell adhesion molecules • lung • angiogenesis

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