Effect of corticosteroid prophylaxis on lipopolysaccharide levels associated with intestinal ischemia in cats.

Ischemia of the intestines damages the permeability of the intestinal wall, allowing lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (endotoxin) to leak from the gut lumen into the blood circulation, causing shock and death. We measured LPS levels associated with corticosteroid treatment vs. no treatment in cats whose superior mesenteric artery had been occluded for 60 min. In untreated cats, the preocclusion mean plasma LPS concentration remained stable at 0.069 +/- 0.015 ng/ml. Toward the end of the occlusion period, mean plasma LPS rose to 0.239 +/- 0.032 ng/ml (p less than .01). Release of the clamp and reperfusion with oxygenated blood was followed within 20 min by a large rise in plasma LPS concentration to 0.825 +/- 0.11 ng/ml (p less than .01), which had returned to preocclusion levels about 80 min later. Methylprednisolone (30 mg/kg) was infused into a second group of cats 1.5 h before SMA occlusion. In these cats there was a complete inhibition of the LPS rise both during and after occlusion. These data suggest that the reported beneficial effect of corticosteroids in the treatment of septic shock may be mediated, in part, by reducing LPS leakage from the gut.