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Time-dependent behavioral recovery after sepsis in rats

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Intensive Care Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the cognitive performance in rats that survived sepsis induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) after 10, 30 and 60 days.

Design

Prospective, controlled experiment.

Setting

Animal basic science laboratory.

Subjects

Male Wistar rats, weighing 300–350 g.

Interventions

The rats were sham-operated or submitted to CLP (sepsis group) with “basic support” (saline, s.c. at 50 mL/kg immediately and 12 h after CLP plus ceftriaxone, s.c. at 30 mg/kg and clindamycin, s.c. at 25 mg/kg 6, 12 and 18 h after CLP).

Measurements and main results

The animals underwent six behavioral tasks 10, 30 and 60 days after surgery: (a) habituation to the open field; (b) inhibitory avoidance task; (c) continuous multiple trials step-down inhibitory avoidance task; (d) object recognition; (e) elevated plus-maze; and (f) forced swimming test. We demonstrated that survivors 10 days after CLP presented deficits on the habituation to the open field, step-down inhibitory avoidance, continuous multiple-trials step-down inhibitory avoidance, object recognition and forced swimming. After 30 days of sepsis induction, survivors maintained deficits on the step-down inhibitory avoidance, continuous multiple-trials step-down inhibitory avoidance and forced swimming. However, after 60 days all behavior deficits were reversed.

Conclusions

These results indicate that the impairment of memory and learning, demonstrated 10 days after the induction of sepsis, persist 30 days after the CLP. The cognitive impairments did not persist after 60 days suggesting that this model can help in the understanding of the biological mechanisms associated with sepsis-induced sickness behavior.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Neurociências, Programa de Pós-Graduação Ciências da Saúde, Unidade Acadêmica de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense, 88806-000, Criciúma, SC, Brazil

    Lisiane Tuon, Clarissa M. Comim & João Quevedo

  2. Laboratório de Fisiopatologia Experimental, PPGCS, UNASAU, Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense, 88806-000, Criciúma, SC, Brazil

    Fabricia Petronilho, Tatiana Barichello & Felipe Dal-Pizzol

  3. Centro de Memória, Instituto de Pesquisas Biomédicas, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, 90610-000, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Ivan Izquierdo

Authors
  1. Lisiane Tuon
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  2. Clarissa M. Comim
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  3. Fabricia Petronilho
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  4. Tatiana Barichello
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  5. Ivan Izquierdo
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  6. João Quevedo
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  7. Felipe Dal-Pizzol
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Felipe Dal-Pizzol.

Additional information

Supported, in part, by UNESC (Brazil), FAPESC (Brazil) and CNPq (Brazil).

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Tuon, L., Comim, C.M., Petronilho, F. et al. Time-dependent behavioral recovery after sepsis in rats. Intensive Care Med 34, 1724–1731 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-008-1129-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-008-1129-1

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