Thymopentin increases the survival of mice after allogeneic blood transfusion, bacterial gavage, and burn injury

Objective: To investigate the effect of blood transfusion on mortality and the incidence of bacterial translocation in mice subjected to thermal burn or bacterial gavage, or both, and to assess the influence of thymopentin on mortality. Design: Randomly controlled experiments. Setting: University departments of surgery, immunology and nuclear medicine. Material: 235 Balb/c (H-2(d)) and C3H/HeJ (H-2(k)) mice. Interventions: 8 groups of 20 mice each received: saline infusion (controls), blood transfusion (BT) alone, 20% burn alone, gavage with 1 x 1010 Escherichia coli alone, BT and gavage, BT and burn, burn and gavage, or BT, burn, and gavage. A further 3 groups of 10 mice were all gavaged with 111In-biotin labelled E coli and randomised to additional BT and burn, BT alone, or burn alone. 98 mice that had had BT, burn, and gavage, were then randomised to receive thymopentin 0, 0.1, 1, or 5 mg/kg/day for 15 days. The impact of the pretreatment with thymopentin on PGE2 concentration was a...