Open Access

ARTICLE

Effect of catecholamines on intracellular cytokine synthesis in human monocytes

Philipp Röntgen¹, Armin Sablotzki^1,2, Andreas Simm¹, Rolf-Edgar Silber¹, Elke Czeslick^1,2

1 Clinic of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
2 Clinic of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

* Corresponding Author: Elke Czeslick,

European Cytokine Network 2004, 15(1), 14-23.

Abstract

Proinflammatory cytokines produced by monocytes, like Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Interleukin-8 (IL-8), and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) are known for their pivotal role in the initiation of the inflammatory response following cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Catecholamines like epinephrine (Epi) and norepinephrine (Nor) are often necessary to stabilize the cardiac function in the early postoperative period and may influence the cytokine expression in monocytes.
In this study we investigated the effects of Epi and Nor on IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α expression in human monocytes stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in whole blood, analyzed intracellularly by flow cytometry. Kinetics of intracellular proinflammatory cytokine production and LPS ED₅₀ were obtained. To simulate different stages of inflammation in vivo, varying concentrations of LPS (0.2 ng/ml, 1 ng/ml and 10 ng/ml) were used for stimulation. After a stimulation with LPS TNF-α was the first produced cytokine, followed by IL-8 and IL-6. All cytokines peaked from 3 h to 6 h. Epi and Nor had comparable effects on the expression of IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α in monocytes. Both inhibited IL-6 and TNF-α expression in a concentration dependent manner whereas IL-8 expression remained unchanged.
We conclude that monocytes are targets for Epi and Nor concerning their cytokine expression. The inhibiting effects of Nor and Epi were almost identical for all cytokines. Cytokine expression was affected most at low LPS concentrations.

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