Abstract
Anthrax lethal toxin (LT), one of the primary virulence factors of Bacillus anthracis, causes anthrax-like symptoms and death in animals. Experiments have indicated that levels of erythrocytopenia and hypoxic stress are associated with disease severity after administering LT. In this study, the granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) was used as a therapeutic agent to ameliorate anthrax-LT- and spore-induced mortality in C57BL/6J mice. We demonstrated that G-CSF promoted the mobilization of mature erythrocytes to peripheral blood, resulting in a significantly faster recovery from erythrocytopenia. In addition, combined treatment using G-CSF and erythropoietin tended to ameliorate B. anthracis-spore-elicited mortality in mice. Although specific treatments against LT-mediated pathogenesis remain elusive, these results may be useful in developing feasible strategies to treat anthrax.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Analysis of Variance
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Animals
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Antigens, Bacterial / poisoning
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Antigens, Bacterial / toxicity*
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Bacterial Toxins / poisoning
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Bacterial Toxins / toxicity*
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Erythrocytes / drug effects*
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Erythrocytes / physiology
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Erythroid Precursor Cells
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Erythropoiesis / drug effects
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Erythropoiesis / physiology
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Erythropoietin / pharmacology*
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Flow Cytometry
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Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor / pharmacology*
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Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor / therapeutic use
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Kaplan-Meier Estimate
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Mice
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Mice, Inbred C57BL
Substances
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Antigens, Bacterial
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Bacterial Toxins
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anthrax toxin
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Erythropoietin
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Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor
Grants and funding
This work was supported by grants of National Science Council
http://web1.nsc.gov.tw/mp.aspx (NSC 96-2311-B-320-005-MY3 and NSC 99-2311-B-320-003-MY3) and Tzu-Chi University
http://www.tcu.edu.tw/ (610400130). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.