Interleukin-11 attenuates pulmonary inflammation and vasomotor dysfunction in endotoxin-induced lung injury

Departments of 1 Surgery and 2 Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado 80262; and 3 Department of Surgery, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 60611 Interleukin (IL)-11, like other members of the gp130 receptor class, possesses anti-inflammatory properties. We hypothesized that IL-11 pretreatment would attenuate endotoxin [lipopolysaccharide (LPS)]-induced lung inflammation and diminish injury to endothelium-dependent and -independent mechanisms of pulmonary vasorelaxation that require cGMP in Sprague-Dawley rats. LPS (20 mg/kg ip) increased lung tumor necrosis factor (TNF)- compared with the saline control (0.7 ± 0.15 ng/g lung wet wt for control vs. 3.5 ± 0.09 ng/g lung wet wt for LPS; P