Prostaglandins, endotoxin and lipid A on body temperature in rats

1. In unanaesthetized restrained rats kept at an ambient temperature of 21-23degrees C, rectal temperature was continuously monitored and the temperature effects of injections of prostaglandins, endotoxin from Salmonella abortus equi, lipid A, and antipyretics were examined. 2. Fever occurred when prostaglandin E1, E2, F1alpha or F2alpha (PGE1, PGE2, PGF1alpha, PGF2alpha) was injected into the cerebral ventricles in doses of 200 ng and 2 mug. PGE2 was the most potent prostaglandin followed in descending order by PGE1, PGF2alpha, and PGF1alpha. The fever produced by 2 mug of PGE1 and PGE2 was short and followed by a fall in temperature to below the pre-injection level. 3. I.V. injections of endotoxin and lipid A in doses of 3 or 10 mug usually caused a long lasting fall in temperature, but when injected into the cerebral ventricles in doses of 400 ng or 1 mug, they produced long lasting fevers. 4. Injected I.V. or I.P., indomethacin and paracetamol had a hypothermic action of their own. Indomethacin was more potent than paracetamol and both were more potent than injected I.P. 5. I.V. and I.P. injections of indomethacin and paracetamol did not reverse the hypothermia in response to I.V. endotoxin or lipid A, but the fever responses to their injection into the cerebral ventricles were prevented and abolished by the antipyretics. 6. It is concluded that in rats endotoxin and lipid A, or the endogenous pyrogens produced by them, do not readily pass through the blood-brain barrier into the brain tissue. If they do reach brain tissue, as when injected into the cerebral ventricles, they stimulate synthesis and release of prostaglandin in rats as they do in other species, and thereby produce fever. The hypothermia in response to I.V. endotoxin or lipid A, on the other hand, is thought to be independent of prostaglandin synthesis and to result from a direct toxic action on the skin vessels.