Endotoxemia in Yucatan miniature pigs: metabolic derangements and experimental therapies

Endotoxemia is a frequent complication of many health disorders. It is characterized by systemic release of a variety of endogenous inflammatory mediators which effect cardiovascular depression, reductions in organ blood flow, tissue ischemia and derangements in cellular metabolism leading to death. During a continuous intravenous infusion of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide, the chronology of alterations in hepatosplanchnic blood flow, hepatic carbohydrate metabolism and pancreatic insulin secretion has been studied in awake Yucatan miniature pigs (Sus scrofa). Endotoxic shock in this model is characterized by reductions in portal venous and hepatic arterial blood flow, early transient increases in pancreatic insulin secretion, increases in the 3H-glucose-derived rates of glucose appearance and disappearance, profound hypoglycemia, hyperlactatemia and metabolic acidosis. Reductions in hepatic oxygen delivery are compensated for by enhanced oxygen extraction efficiency, but hepatic gluconeogenesis continues at an inadequate rate to compensate for increased glucose utilization. Experimental therapies including lidocaine, naloxone, captopril, dichloroacetate and glucagon each effect specific improvements in cardiovascular or metabolic function, but none significantly alter the composite derangements responsible for lethality in this model.