Chlorpromazine modulates cytokine expression in the liver and lung after burn injury and endotoxemia

Previous data from our laboratory have demonstrated that alterations in cytokine production occur in the lung and liver as the result of a two-hit model of injury, i.e., burn with subsequent endotoxin administration. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the phenothiazine derivative chlorpromazine would alter cytokine production in a sequential model of injury.

By using a sublethal burn/endotoxemia model, B2D6F1 mice (n = 40) were assigned to two groups and subjected to a 15% full-thickness burn. Three days after burn injury, one group (BURN/ETX) received 2.5 mg/kg Escherichia coli endotoxin intraperitoneally, and the other group (CPZ) received 4 mg/kg chlorpromazine 1 hour before the administration of 2.5 mg/kg E. coli endotoxin intraperitoneally. At selected time points, the animals were killed and lung and liver were removed and processed for protein and total RNA. Northern blots and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were used to assess the production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, macrophage inflammatory protein-1alpha, and interleukin-10.

Chlorpromazine significantly reduced tumor necrosis factor-alpha mRNA and protein expression in the liver. Macrophage inflammatory protein-1alpha mRNA was reduced by chlorpromazine in both liver and lung. Interleukin-10 production was not altered by chlorpromazine.

The reduction of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and macrophage inflammatory protein-1alpha by chlorpromazine in the liver and lungs may have potential as a pharmaceutical agent that may dampen the inflammatory response in a model of sequential injury.