Figure 4

Tissue protective compounds improve wound healing in a cecal ligation and perforation infectious peritonitis model. (A) Following wounding, signs of illness (see Materials and Methods) intensified, reaching a peak by 2–3 d. Notably, illness in the CEPO-treated animals was delayed and less severe than in the saline treatment group. (B) Serum TNFa levels from tail vein samples at 3 h following the procedure. The CEPO group exhibited a lower peak level (P < 0.05) and was similar to the sham group, consistent with the less severe clinical scores observed. Horizontal lines are the group means. (C) The mortality in the saline group was significantly more than for CEPO (P < 0.01), whereas EPO treatment was not associated with a significant increase in survival. (D) Scoring the severity of adhesions showed that CEPO treatment was associated with a marked reduction (P < 0.01 compared with saline) as well as a nonsignificant trend in reduction associated with EPO treatment. (E) Representative photos demonstrating the difference between a saline animal (left) and CEPO (right). Note the white, fibrinous membrane almost completely enveloping the opened abdominal surface. This is consistent with highly inflammatory processes, which are not present in CEPO-treated animals.