Therapy of infections in mice irradiated in mixed neutron/photon fields and inflicted with wound trauma: a review of current work.

When host antimicrobial defenses are severely compromised by radiation or trauma in conjunction with radiation, death from sepsis results. To evaluate therapies for sepsis in radiation casualties, we developed models of acquired and induced bacterial infections in irradiated and irradiated-wounded mice. Animals were exposed to either a mixed radiation field of equal proportions of neutrons and γ rays (n/γ = 1) from a TRIGA reactor or pure γ rays from60 Co sources. Skin wounds (15% of total body surface area) were inflicted under methoxyflurane anesthesia 1 h after irradiation. In all mice, wounding after irradiation decreased resistance to infection. Treatments with the immunomodulator synthetic trehalose dicorynomycolate (S-TDCM) before or after mixed neutron-γ irradiation or γ irradiation increased survival. Therapy with S-TDCM for mice irradiated with either a mixed field or γ rays increased resistance to Klebsiella pneumoniae-induced infections. Combined therapy with S-TDCM and ceftriaxone for K. pneu...