Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Infection and Immunity, October 2000, p. 5756-5763, Vol. 68, No. 10
Novartis Pharma Limited, CH-4002
Basel,1 and Theodor-Kocher Institute,
University of Bern, CH-3012 Bern,2 Switzerland,
and Fund for Molecular Hematology and Immunology, Moscow,
Russia3
Received 31 January 2000/Returned for modification 24 April
2000/Accepted 3 July 2000
Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is elevated in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
of patients with meningitis and is proposed to participate in
subarachnoid-space pleocytosis. However, intracisternal injection of
IL-8 into rabbits failed to induce indices typical of meningitis (leukocyte, tumor necrosis factor, or protein accumulation in the CSF
or histopathological changes), indicating that merely increasing the
CSF level of this chemokine is insufficient to induce inflammation in
this anatomical site. IL-8 treatment did not affect inflammatory
responses to subsequently intracisternally administered
lipopolysaccharide (LPS). IL-8 was chemotactic for rabbit neutrophils
in vitro, and subcutaneous injection of IL-8 (diluted in buffer or CSF)
proved the in vivo activity of this peptide and suggested the absence
of an IL-8 inhibitor in normal rabbit CSF. LPS-dependent pleocytosis
was only slightly diminished by intracisternally administered murine
anti-rabbit IL-8 monoclonal antibody (MAb) WS-4 but was dramatically
reduced by intravenously administered MAb. Therefore, elevated CSF IL-8
levels may contribute to, but cannot solely account for, neutrophil
influx into the subarachnoid space during meningitis. However,
inhibition of IL-8 activity of the bloodstream side of the blood-brain
barrier effectively reduces pleocytosis, indicating a central role of
IL-8 in neutrophil influx into CSF during bacterial meningitis. Thus,
inhibition of IL-8 is a possible therapeutic target for adjunct
treatment of meningitis.
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Systemic Neutralization of Interleukin-8 Markedly
Reduces Neutrophilic Pleocytosis during Experimental
Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Meningitis in Rabbits


*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Novartis Pharma
AG, WKL 125.1.05, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland. Phone: 41-61-696-3427. Fax: 41-61-696-6242. E-mail:
terence.oreilly{at}pharma.novartis.com.
Present address: Oregon Hearing Research Center, Oregon Health
Sciences University, Portland, OR 97207.
Present address: DuPont Merck R&D, Stine-Haskell Research Center,
Newark, DE 19174-0030.
This article has been cited by other articles:
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»