Acute G-CSF therapy is not protective during lethal E. coli sepsis

We investigated whether decreases in circulating polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) during lethal Escherichia coli (E. coli) sepsis in canines are related to insufficient host granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). Two-year-old purpose-bred beagles had intraperitoneal E. coli-infected or -noninfected fibrin clots surgically placed. By 10 to 12 h following clot, both infected survivors and nonsurvivors had marked increases (P = 0.001) in serum G-CSF levels (mean peak G-CSF ng/ml ± SE, 1,931 ± 364 and 2,779 ± 681, respectively) compared with noninfected controls (134 ± 79), which decreased at 24 to 48 h. Despite increases in G-CSF, infected clot placement caused delayed (P = 0.06) increases in PMN (mean ± SE change from baseline in cells × 103/mm3 at 24 and 48 h) in survivors (+3.9 ± 3.9 and +13.8 ± 3.6) compared with noninfected controls (+13.1 ± 2.8 and +9.1 ± 2.5). Furthermore, infected nonsurvivors had decreases in PMN (−1.4 ± 1.0 and −1.1 ± 2.3, P = 0.006 compared with the other groups). We ne...