title: Intracerebroventricular passive immunization. I. The effect of intracerebroventricular administration of an antiserum to tumor necrosis factor-alpha on the plasma adrenocorticotropin response to lipopolysaccharide in rats.
abstract: The present study tested the hypothesis that the cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is an important central nervous system mediator of the rat hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response to the i.v. administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 5 microg/kg). LPS produced a rapid (within 30 min) rise in plasma TNF-alpha levels, which preceded elevations in plasma ACTH (commencing at 45 min). Despite a lack of detectable TNF-alpha biological activity in the brain 30 min to 2 h after LPS administration, intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) pretreatment (-20 h) with 5 microl anti-TNF-alpha antiserum significantly delayed the onset of the plasma ACTH response to LPS, suggesting that TNF-alpha acts within the brain. However, we also noted that the i.c.v. infusion of anti-TNF-alpha 20 h earlier produced experimentally significant concentrations of the same anti-TNF-alpha antibodies in systemic blood. This suggested the possibility that the effect of this antiserum was due to its leakage to the periphery. Indeed, 5 microl anti-TNF-alpha administered i.v. at -20 h produced an inhibition of the ACTH response to LPS that was temporally and quantitatively similar to that produced by i.c.v. anti-TNF-alpha. Intracerebroventricular administration of anti-TNF-alpha immediately before LPS produced only low systemic blood levels of corresponding anti-TNF-alpha antibodies and did not significantly alter the plasma ACTH response, whereas i.v. administration of anti-TNF-alpha immediately before LPS was clearly effective. Collectively, these results show that 1) biologically active levels of TNF-alpha in systemic plasma and the ensuing ACTH responses to LPS were always temporally and qualitatively related; and 2) even though i.c.v. administration of anti-TNF-alpha could inhibit the HPA axis response to LPS, this was apparent only when substantial amounts of anti-TNF-alpha antibodies had reached systemic blood. We, therefore, conclude that at the dose of LPS used in this study (5 microg/kg), TNF-alpha is an important mediator of the HPA axis response to LPS by an action within the periphery, but probably not within the brain.
authors.affiliation: The Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology, The Salk Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Turnbull
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Rivier
mesh_terms: D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone / Q000097:blood*; D000818:Animals; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000502:physiology; D007106:Immune Sera / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D007116:Immunization, Passive; D007276:Injections, Intraventricular; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000633:toxicity*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System / Q000502:physiology; D011817:Rabbits; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000276:immunology* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D007106:Immune Sera; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone