Insulin-like growth factor-1 improves survival in sepsis via enhanced hepatic bacterial clearance

Both insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 and bacterial clearance by Kupffer cells are significantly reduced in severe sepsis. Kupffer cell apoptosis is triggered by tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and activation of the PI-3 kinase pathway prevents TNF-induced Kupffer cell death.

We evaluated if the marked decline in IGF-1 is related to bacterial clearance in sepsis.

Sepsis was induced in C57BL/6 mice by intratracheal inoculation with Pseudomonas aeruginosa (strain PA103). Some mice received IGF-1 24 mg/kg either before infection or 12 hours after infection. In vitro studies were performed using the clonal Kupffer cell line KC13-2.

Sepsis resulted in decreased levels of IGF-1. In vitro studies with KC13-2 cells demonstrated that IGF-1 protected Kupffer cells against TNF-alpha-induced apoptosis by activating the PI-3 kinase pathway and stabilizing the inhibitor of apoptosis protein, XIAP. In the animal model, pretreatment with IGF-1 decreased hepatic TNF-alpha and IL-6, improved hepatic bacterial clearance as demonstrated by real-time polymerase chain reaction with primers specific for P. aeruginosa, and improved survival in severe sepsis. Moreover, we rescued mice from severe sepsis by IGF-1 treatment 12 hours after infection.

These studies show that the decline in IGF-1 levels in sepsis is related to bacterial clearance and that replacement of IGF-1 in a murine model of sepsis improves overall survival.