Objective: To compare the responses to sepsis between C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice.
Methods: Thirty C57BL/6 mice and 30 BALB/c mice were randomized into sham-operated group and sepsis group (n=15). Sepsis model was established by cecal ligation puncture (CLP) in the mice, and 6 h after the operation, 5 mice from each group were selected randomly for cytokine detection including IL-1beta, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, GM-CSF, IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha by Bio-plex. The other 10 mice in each group were used for survival analysis.
Results: The survival rates of BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice were both 100% in one week after the sham operation, but lowered to 10% and 50% in one week after CLP, respectively. The survival rate of C57BL/6 mice was significantly lower than that of BALB/c mice (P<0.05). After CLP, C57BL/6 mice showed significantly greater IL-4, TNF-alpha and IL-10 production than the sham-operated mice, but the concentrations of the 8 cytokines in BALB/c mice after CLP showed no significant increment.
Conclusion: Compared with BALB/c mice, C57BL/6 strain mouse is more sensitive to sepsis.